Reproductive Health

Infertility and assisted reproductive technologies - IVF, ZIFT, GIFT


  • Inability to conceive (or) produce children inspite of unprotected sexual cohabitation is called infertility.
  • It is caused by physical, congenital, immunological (or) even psychological disorders.
  • Assisted reproductive technologies (ART) include a number of special techniques which assist infertile couples to have children.
  • Test tube body programme involves in vitro fertilization (IVF) ie. fertilization of male and female gamete outside the body in almost similar conditions as that in the body followed by Embryo transfer.
  • Embryo upto 8 blastomeres is transferred into the Fallopian tube (zygote Intra Fallopian Transfer - ZIFT) to complete its further development.
  • If the embryo is with more than 8 blastomeres, it is transferred into uterus. (IUT - Intra uterine Transfer) to complete its further development.
  • A woman who substitutes or takes the place of real mother to nurse the embryo is called surrogate/genetic mother.
  • Artificial Insemination Technique (AIT) is used in those females where the husband is either unable to inseminate the female or has very low sperm counts in ejaculation.
  • Gamete intra Fallopian Transfer (GIFT) is used in females who cant produce ova but can provide suitable environment for fertilization and further development of embryo in oviducts.
  • Intra cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) is the technique where sperm is directly injected into the ovum to form an embryo in laboratory. The embryo is later transferred by ZIFT or IUT in woman.

Part-1: Watch this video for the topic from 0:18 to 8:38

Part-2: Watch this video for the topic from 0:10 to 10:49

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