Research Blog: Test Tube Babies

Bringing Home Joy With the Help of Science

It’s ten o’clock on a Tuesday, sitting in class getting really bored taking notes on the next chapter of science while your teacher just drones on and on about how the male parts mix with the female parts, and the whole class is holding back a laugh. Looking in the future, someday thinking you and your classmates might have kids or maybe not. But what if someday you’re doctor tells you that you and your wife/husband cannot make babies naturally? How do you ever imagine starting a family when told the ability to do has been taken away, or may never have been there in the first place? How many options await in the future for people in this situation?

FIGURE 1

Science Behind It
In-Vitro Fertilization, even though it’s about the cost of a new-used car, is an option to these people. The teacher hasn’t quite taught about this option, but it’s worth understanding for anyone. The idea of putting a male sperm with a female egg in a test-tube to grow sounds odd, but it’s actually a great alternative to infertility (2). The inability to have children through normal reproduction and sexual intercourse is infertility. The two cells mix in the test-tube and form into an embryo to be placed into the mother to grow until birth, ( see FIGURE1 for a visual view) (1). The inventor of in-vitro fertilization, or IVF, Robert G. Edwards created the first ever human embryo from this process in his Cambridge University laboratory during the year 1978 (2). He opened up doors in the medical field world-wide to all those future couples who couldn’t conceive on their own. So how much do you think test tube babies would cost?

Cost Vs Risk

This process cost about $10,000-$12,000 to try and make an embryo in a test tube (1). Starting the growth of a new baby doesn’t sound cheap by the looks of it, but compared to a new car or a house, it’s not as risky or costly as it seems. The cost seems risky, but it may be the only real risk taken when considering in-vitro fertilization. The risk to the mother is minimal as is a normal pregnancy, most cases grow into having a healthy, happy baby from birth and continue into a normal human being. Risks involved include: “Fertility drugs are used with IVF to stimulate ovaries to produce eggs. High doses can cause swollen ovaries and mild abdominal bloating. Severe cases may involve persistent pain, substantial weight gain, vomiting and dangerous blood clots” (3). Most of these are avoided by pre-procedure tests to determine the risk for each individual woman.

FIGURE 2

Results & Choices         

The end result is the same, whether it’s a future mommy and a future daddy make a baby on their own, or they have assistant from a doctor and a test tube, the child is still born, and still grows into the boy or girl (see FIGURE 2) sitting in class, writing down notes on some boring science topic hand-picked for a day’s worth of torture. The same class, you sit in today. Who knows, maybe even one of your own classmates came from an in-vitro fertilization process and grew into the guy or girl, she or he is today.

References:

1)      Marchione, M. (2012). Australian study of test-tube babies finds limited risk. The Washington Post. A10, 1-3.

2)      Stein, R. (2013, April). Robert G. Edwards, ‘test tube baby pioneer, dies at age 87. The Washington Post, Retrieved from http://washingtonpost.com

3)    Tanner, L. (2015). Trying for test tube baby? Risks to mom are rare, study says. Daily Mail, No Vol. (1), para. 2-5.

Figure 1: Vidani, P. (2015, November). Women's issues: Importance of online magazines for women. Retrieved from Tumblr: Fertility and Age Website: http://rlv.zcache.com/in_vitro_fertilization_ivf_procedure_labeled_poster-r54c62657cbf54049b662a92217a66ba5_wvp_8byvr_512.jpg

Figure 2: Baby Centre, (January 2016). Baby: What a newborn looks like. Retrieved from Baby Centre: http://assets.babycenter.com/ims/2012/10/iStock_000001279386Medium_4x3.jpg?width=520