Medical methods and treatments applied to couples who cannot conceive naturally are called assisted reproductive techniques (ART). With assisted reproductive techniques, the aim is to create a pregnancy by taking the egg cells produced in the female body out of the body, fertilizing them with the man's sperm in a laboratory environment, and returning the resulting embryo into the female uterus.
While techniques such as injecting sperm or embryo into tubes under laparoscopy (GIFT/ZIFT) were used in the past, the preferred assisted reproductive techniques in modern medicine are in vitro fertilization (IVF) and microinjection (ICSI). The only difference between in vitro fertilization and microinjection is in the form of fertilization. In the in vitro fertilization method, sperm and eggs are placed together and fertilization is expected to occur spontaneously, while in the microinjection method, a single sperm is injected into each egg with microscopic catheters.
Although the insemination method is also an aid method, in vitro fertilization and microinjection methods are more commonly referred to.
Assisted reproductive techniques, that is, in vitro fertilization, have begun to be used much more today than before. For example, in the past, when the tubes were found to be blocked, they were first tried to be opened surgically, but now the in vitro fertilization method, that is, assisted reproductive techniques, is preferred. With the advancement of laboratory techniques, pregnancy is now achieved in 85-87% of couples treated after the first 3 attempts.
I think in vitro fertilization treatment, which still seems like an expensive and difficult to access technique in the eyes of the society today, will be a cheaper method that is frequently applied in many medium and large-scale hospitals in Türkiye in the coming years.