Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Assisted Reproduction (Research Section)

Research Section
What is assisted reproduction?




Assisted reproduction is when a woman has damaged her fallopian tubes and isn't able to get pregnat on her own. The woman uses different techniques to be able to become pregnat and give birth to a healthy baby (1).




(A damaged falloian tube that is blocked.( 2).



What different ways are there to have an assisted reproduction?




There are about six different kinds of Assisted Reproduction; IVF (In-Vitro Fertilization), GIFT (Gammete Intrafallopian Tube Transfer), ZIFT (Zygote Intrafallopian Transfer), ICSI (Intracytoplasmic Sperm Insertion), and FASIAR (FASIAR (Follicle Aspiration, Sperm Injection, and Assisted Follicular Rupture) (1).








IVF is a process in which a woman takes fertility drugs to help her ovaries produce and release more eggs. This is the most popular source of assisted reproduction. When an egg is relased it is taken out of her body by the doctor to be placed in a petri dish. As it lays within the petri dish, a male's sperm is mixed. I fthe egg becomes fertilized, it is placed back into the woman. They place about three or four eggs back into the woman to help increase the chance of her becoming pregnat (1).






GIFT is another process when a woman's unfertilized eggs are retreieved and mixed with sperm. The eggs are then places right away back into the woman's fallopean tubes. The fallopean tubes must be healthy for this perticiular process to work correctly (1).






ZIFT is a similar process to GIFT, only in this situation the doctor has more control over the eggs and being placed inside the fallopean tube. This way causes a better assurance for the woman to become pregnat (1).






ICSI is when a single sprem is injected in the female's egg. The egg is then either placed into the uterus or the fallopean tubes. This process is only recommended if the male has very few sperm left, or some other medical process has occured and the couple isn't able to use any other process of Assisted Reproduction (1).






FASIAR is one of the newest and less expensive techniques of Assisted Repoduction in which the follicule is punctured and an egg is removed. The egg is placed into a syringe that also contains the sperm. The mixture of the egg and the sperm are quickly placed back into the follicule. Though this may be one of the cheapest ways of Assisted Reproduction, it may cause a woman to give birth to omultiple children at once (1).

What are some risks of having Assisted Reproduction?



Though you may get lucky and have your child come out perfectly healthy, others may have some of the following problems go wrong with their Assisted Reproduction;

(Here is a cartoon of A.R. 1. Gene Mutations (1)
that shows how all the 2. Multiple children being born (1)
sperm cirlces the cell and 3. Mutations of the child/ illnessess and diseases (1)
tried to fertilize it) (3)


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