Infertility

There are many different treatments for infertility. However, many of these treatments have a higher chance of the child being born with disabilities.

One of the many techniques used to overcome male infertility is intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection, which can be used when there are deformed sperm, these sperm may also be incapable of movement. During this method of fertilisation, a sperm cell is injected into a human egg using a needle and then the embryo is inserted into the womb. The principle difference between ICSI and IVF is that IVF uses eggs which are place with multiple sperm and are fertilised naturally by the sperm releasing enzymes on to the surface of the egg, which allow it to gain entry. It's theorised that the insertion of the needle could lead to affect the eggs internal structure. However, ICSI children are more likely to have abnormalities but the treatment has been found to have no effect on the intellect of the child nor to the child's weight or height. Children born by this method have been found o have a lower sperm count but it is still hopefully that they may be able to have children naturally.


Image from: Invitra

Recently, there have been several three parent babies born. The children were found to be completely healthy. This technique can overcome the issue of embryonic arrest (embryo development), which is problematic in IVF treatment. Pro-nuclear fusion is used; after the fertilisation of an egg, the genetic information is extracted and placed into a donor egg, meaning that the egg has the full genetic information of both parents.
Image from: Discovery

A potential new technique is using sperm binding beads which will be able to capture the healthiest sperm for the fertilisation process later on. By choosing the best sperm, the health of the child can be more assuring. Interestingly, this method could also be used a contraceptive, as the beads could absorb the sperm preventing fertilisation. This has been researched on mice and has prevented pregnancy in the mice.

Image from: Science alert

Another new technique is using synthetic ovaries, which would enable women who have undergone chemotherapy to have children. Chemotherapy can lead to infertility as. However, the synthetic ovaries would be able to keep the human egg-prodding follicles alive in a laboratory. It could also allow women with endometriosis to have children, this is a condition where the lining of the womb isn't in the correct place. This method may also be able to delay or even prevent menopause which is thought to be linked with the development of osteoporosis. 

References:

• New Scientist
• New Scientist
• NHS
• BabyCentre
• Science alert