The History of IVF -The Milestones

1992

Successful in-vitro fertilisation and embryo transfer after treatment with recombinant human FSH. Presented simultaneously by two groups: (Germond M, Dessole S, Senn A, Loumaye E, Howles C, Beltrami V. Successful in-vitro fertilisation and embryo transfer after treatment with recombinant human FSH. Lancet, 1992 9;339:1170) (Devroey P, van Steirteghem A, Mannaerts B, Bennink HC. Successful in-vitro fertilisation and embryo transfer after treatment with recombinant human FSH. Lancet. 1992;9;339:1170).

Assisted zona hatching was introduced in IVF programs to breach the zona pellucida and promote the natural process of hatching. (Cohen J, Alikani M, Trowbridge J, Rosenwaks Z. Implantation enhancement by selective assisted hatching using zona drilling of human embryos with poor prognosis. Hum. Reprod. 1992 7: 685-691).

Discovery that men with congenital absence of the vas deferens have a mild form of cystic fibrosis: Two papers:

(Anguiano et al. 1992, JAMA 267(13)1794)(Patrizio and Asch 1992, Annals Acad Med Singapore 21:533)

Report of the first pregnancy after intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) by the group in Brussels (Palermo G, Joris H, Devroey P, Van Steirteghem AC. Pregnancies after intracytoplasmic injection of single spermatozoon into an oocyte. Lancet. 1992;4;340:17-8).

Pregnancy after embryo biopsy and coamplification of DNA from X and Y chromosomes. (Grifo JA, Tang YX, Cohen J, Gilbert F, Sanyal MK, Rosenwaks Z. Pregnancy after embryo biopsy and coamplification of DNA from X and Y chromosomes. JAMA 1992, 12;268(6):727-9).

Ovulation induction by endogenous LH released by the administration of an LHRH agonist after follicular stimulation for in vitro fertilization (Emperaire JC, Ruffié A, Audebert AJ. Ovulation induction by endogenous LH released by the administration of an LHRH agonist after follicular stimulation for in vitro fertilization. J Gynecol Obstet Biol Reprod (Paris). 1992;21:489-94. French).

First report on cumulative conception and live birth rates after IVF in relation to patient's age and cause of infertility (Tan SL, Royston P, Campbell S, Jacobs HS, Betts J, Mason B, Edwards RG. Cumulative conception and livebirth rates after in-vitro fertilisation. Lancet. 1992,6;339(8806):1390-4).

First two births from replacement of frozen embryos produced with epididymal sperm (Patrizio P, Silber S, Ord T, Marello E, Balmaceda JP, Asch RH. Replacement of frozen embryos generated from epididymal spermatozoa: the first two pregnancies. Hum Reprod 1992;7(5):652-3)

Report on using Erbium YAG laser for micromanipulation of oocytes and spermatozoa (Feichtinger W, Strohmer H, Radner KM. Erbium YAG laser for micromanipulation of oocytes and spermatozoa. Lancet. 1992, 11;340(8811):115-6).

Investigating the role of FSH in hypogonadotropic women usung the new recombinant FSH drug (Schoot DC, Coelingh Bennink HJ, Mannaerts BM, Lamberts SW, Bouchard P, Fauser BC. Human recombinant follicle-stimulating hormone induces growth of preovulatory follicles without concomitant increase in androgen and estrogen biosynthesis in a woman with isolated gonadotropin deficiency. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 1992; 74: 1471-3).