In Vitro Fertilization

Programs that assist women to conceive children through an assisted reproductive technology procedure which involves ovarian stimulation and monitoring, harvesting ova from the woman, fertilizing the eggs in a test tube or petri dish outside the body using her partner's or a donor's sperm, and transferring the embryo to the uterus. This procedure is particularly effective for women whose fallopian tubes are blocked preventing ova from reaching the uterus naturally. If the woman has a functioning fallopian tube, the fertilized egg may be transferred to the fallopian tube(s) rather than the uterus in a procedure called zygote intrafallopian transfer. In situations involving male infertility, intracytoplasmic sperm injection may be used. The ICSI procedure involves injection of a single sperm directly into an egg which is then implanted in the uterus.