The History of IVF -The Milestones

1998

First establish pregnancy using recombinant FSH and GnRH antagonist (Itskovitz-Eldor J, Kol S, Mannaerts B, Coelingh Bennink H. First established pregnancy after controlled ovarian hyperstimulation with recombinant follicle stimulating hormone and the gonadotrophin-releasing hormone antagonist ganirelix (Org 37462). Hum Reprod. 1998;13:294-5).

Gardner introduced sequential media and blastocyst transfer which is now greatly assists in the move to single embryo transfer (Gardner DK, Schoolcraft WB, Wagley L, Schlenker T, Stevens J, Hesla J. A prospective randomized trial of blastocyst culture and transfer in in-vitro fertilization. Hum Reprod 1998;13:3434-40).

Births after intracytoplasmic injection of sperm obtained by testicular extraction from men with nonmosaic Klinefelter's syndrome (Palermo GD, Schlegel PN, Sills ES, Veeck LL, Zaninovic N, Menendez S, Rosenwaks Z. Births after intracytoplasmic injection of sperm obtained by testicular extraction from men with nonmosaic Klinefelter's syndrome. N Engl J Med. 1998, 26;338(9):588-90).

The first pregnancies following embryo culture in sequential media and transfer at the blastocyst stage of development (Jones GM, Trounson AO, Gardner DK, Kausche A, Lolatgis N, Wood C. Evolution of a culture protocol for successful blastocyst development and pregnancy. Hum Reprod. 1998 ;13:169-77).

First ovum pick-up under 3-D ultrasound vision (Feichtinger W. Follicle aspiration with interactive three-dimensional digital imaging (Voluson): a step toward real-time puncturing under three-dimensional ultrasound control. Fertil Steril. 1998;70(2):374-7).

In 1998 first reports on births from frozen GV eggs, and donor eggs: - Tucker et al. Birth after cryopreservation of immature oocytes with subsequent in vitro maturation. (Tucker MJ, Wright G, Morton PC, Massey JB. Birth after cryopreservation of immature oocytes with subsequent in vitro maturation. Fertil Steril. 1998;70(3):578-9); Tucker et al. Clinical application of human egg cryopreservation. (Tucker MJ, Morton PC, Wright G, Sweitzer CL, Massey JB. Clinical application of human egg cryopreservation. Hum Reprod. 1998;13(11):3156-9).