5.13 Fertility Treatment

Question 1

What does FSH stand for?

Answer 1

Follicle stimulating hormone

Question 2

What does LH stand for?

Answer 2

Luteinising hormone

Question 3

What would low levels of FSH mean for a woman?

Answer 3

It would mean that no eggs would be matured and It would mean that no ovulation would take place (no eggs are released) and the woman can’t get pregnant.

Question 4

What 2 things may be done to a woman who is struggling to get pregnant before she undergoes IVF?

Answer 4

• Being injected with FSH and LH
• Given FSH and LH in the form of a pill

Question 5

If being injected with or taking pills that contain FSH and LH don’t work for a woman, what may they choose to do?

Answer 5

IVF - In vitro fertilisation

Question 6

Describe the steps of IVF (4)

Answer 6

1) FSH and LH are given before egg collection to stimulate egg production and ovulation so more than one egg can be collected (improving the chance of successful fertilisation).
2) The eggs are collected from the woman’s ovaries and fertilised in a lab using the man’s sperm. If the man has a low sperm count, doctors could use a technique called intra cytoplasmic sperm injection or ICSI where the sperm is injected into the egg cell with a tiny needle.
3) Now that the eggs are fertilised, they are placed in an incubator and left to grow into embryos which are tiny balls of cells.
4) Once the embryos are tiny balls of cells, one or two of them are transferred to the woman’s uterus to improve the chance of pregnancy.

Question 7

What does IVF stand for?

Answer 7

In vitro fertilisation

Question 8

What are the cons of IVF? (3)

Answer 8

• It doesn’t always work. In the UK, the chance of success is 1/4.
• It can be emotionally upsetting
• It can be physically unpleasant. For example, a lot of women get abdominal pain and vomiting.
• As we often put multiple embryos in the uterus in the hope of at least one of them developing, IVF often leads to multiple births (twins/triplets) and just like with natural multiple births, this gives a much higher risk of complications like miscarriage and stillbirth.

Question 9

Why are some people against IVF? (2)

Answer 9

• It often results in unused embryos that are eventually destroyed, even though they had the potential for human life. They think the whole process is unethical
• Genetic testing can be used to find out the characteristics of the future baby (such as their gender or eye colour). Some people fear that it might lead to designer babies.

Question 10

What has recent successes in microscope technology allowed us to do in IVF procedures? (2)

Answer 10

• They have improved the success rate of IVF
• They have allowed us to remove single cells from an embryo, so that we can do genetic tests on them and see if they have any diseases.

Question 11

Sometimes, fertilising an egg with sperm may require “Intra-Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI)”. What is this?

Answer 11

Sperm is injected into an egg cell with a tiny needle.

Question 12

In IVF, why are embryos kept in an incubator whilst in the laboratory?

Answer 12

To provide the optimum temperature for enzymes and thus cell growth

Question 13

What do we call the release of an egg from the ovary?

Answer 13

Ovulation