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Demography, Genetics, Fertility, Reproduction

Fertility & Reproduction

Assisted reproductive technology

In vitro fertilisation (IVF)

In vitro fertilisation (IVF) ("in vitro" means "in glass"): The in-glass (e.g. a petri dish) fusion of sperm and egg.
"in vitro can become genetically specific and allow for the selection of particular genes or expressible traits to be dominantly present in the formed embryo"
Use of IVF may increase chance of pre-term deliveries & lower birth weights. (source?)
IVF step-by-step:
  1. Consultation
  2. Baseline bloodwork & ultrasound
  3. Ovarian stimulation injection of the wife, causing increased egg release
  4. Oocyte maturation
  5. Egg retrieval from the wife
  6. Fertilization using many of the husband's sperm into many of the wife's eggs
    • This process may involve medical staff literally injecting the sperm into the egg.
    • A drawback of this is that this does all of the hard work for the sperm, thus eliminating the natural "test" that the sperm be both fit enough and willing to swim through the uterus to get to the eggs, and to actually fertilize one.
    • Thus if this is done using a sperm that is not fit enough to naturally acomplish this task, then this is highly dysgenic, and could long-term result in a population that has only sperm that are unfit/unwilling to naturally (without IVF) reach and fertizie eggs. Thus making IVF a "crutch", and the population effectivly sterile/infertile.
  7. Wait ~6 days for fertilizaed eggs to grow
  8. Selection of fertilized eggs:
    • Either as simple as verifying the normal quantity of chromosomes (2), thus avoiding many disorders
    • or as advanced as sequencing the DNA of each one and selecting from the genes / traits available
  9. Embryo transfer back into the wife
  10. Wait 2 weeks
  11. Pregnancy test
    • If successful, congratulations!
    • If unsuccessful, go back to the fertilization step (as there are likely still many collected eggs)
Costs: The cost of one IVF cycle in the United States averages US $15,000, while for comparable treatment in Mexico it is about US $7,800, Thailand $6,500, India $3,300, and Iran $2,500. See Reproductive related tourism.
3-Parent Child
Anatomy of an animal cell

Genetics