ART: Laboratory Aspects

Abstract

Assisted reproductive technologies (ART) can be defined as fertility treatment that involves removing eggs from a woman’s ovaries and combining them with sperm in a laboratory. Methods used to achieve this result include in vitro fertilization (IVF), gamete intrafallopian transfer (GIFT), and zygote intrafallopian transfer (ZIFT). Currently, more than 300,000 cycles of human IVF and similar techniques are performed each year in the United States, resulting in the birth of over 80,000 babies. Far-reaching advances in laboratory techniques and culture conditions have been made since 1978, when the first IVF baby was born in England. Some of these advancements include in vitro oocyte maturation, intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), time-lapse imaging, preimplantation genetic testing (PGT), oocyte and embryo vitrification, and automated assessment and selection of embryos using artificial intelligence. Today, ART procedures are responsible for over 1% of all children born in the United States annually.