A The problem of infertility has long been a preoccupation of mankind, and it has not let them rest. The first attempts at fertilising mammalian eggs were made in Vienna in 1878, followed by the first successful embryo transfer in rabbits in 1890. Clinical trials started around 1960, with Edwards and Gononi being prominent. Edwards studied human oocytes and found that follicle rupture occurs 37 hours after hCg treatment. Gononi was able to extract follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) from urine.
The first successful IVF-ET in 1973 in Australia, but it was only a short-lived pregnancy.
The world's first baby to be conceived through a foetal insemination programme was a girl called Louise Brown, born in England on 25 July 1978. Her mother was a 30-year-old woman who developed infertility due to a blocked fallopian tube. The attempt was successful in the USA in 1981.
The first egg donation took place in 1984. This is necessary if, despite stimulation, a healthy egg cannot be retrieved from the mother's body. And in 1985, science reached another milestone: the first pregnancy using a surrogate mother. In the latter case, a suitable egg cell is available but the conditions for a successful pregnancy are not met, for example because of maternal illness. The retrieved egg is then transferred back into the uterus of another, genetically foreign woman who carries the pregnancy to term. This procedure raises rather complex ethical issues and is currently not legal in Hungary.
It was at this time, in 1984, that the first successful pregnancy using frozen embryos was achieved. The fate of the so-called "ice-cream babies" and the questions that embryo freezing raises as an option will be discussed in a later article.
Zsuzsi, the first Hungarian fombic baby, was born in the clinic of the University of Pécs Medical School just over ten years later. She was conceived using the GIFT method. The first Hungarian IVF (in vitro fertilisation) baby, Bálint, was born on 24 May 1989.
A revolutionary innovation was the introduction of ICSI and assisted haching, which offer better prospects for achieving the desired result, especially in cases of male infertility.In 1992, Italian scientists discovered that by injecting a single sperm directly into the egg using a micromanipulator (intracytoplasmic sperm injection, ICSI), it is possible to achieve a pregnancy success rate similar to that of a normal sperm image using the traditional IVF procedure.
The Hungarian equivalent of the word hatching is shirking. The embryo is placed inside a protective envelope called the vitreous membrane. It must emerge from this vitreous membrane in order to embed itself in the mucous membrane of the uterus. This usually occurs on the fifth or sixth day of embryogenesis. Unfortunately, this does not always happen on its own, and in some cases the process needs to be assisted. A special procedure called "assisted hatching", or assisted hatching assisted in English (AHA), has been developed to solve this problem and can be used under strict guidelines. Generally, such assisted evasion is needed when:
- the mother is over 38 years old,
- the vitreous humour is significantly thicker than normal,
- FSH hormone levels are high,
- the frozen embryo is reinserted,
- have had two previous embryo transfers and have not become pregnant in previous IVF cycles
- if the quality of the embryos is not good
The IVF method is still being developed today. At present, the biggest ethical and philosophical dilemma is preimplantation diagnostics. In our country, it is already possible to screen embryos awaiting implantation for the most common genetic abnormalities before transfer, thus increasing the chances of a healthy embryo being transferred to the uterus and thus increasing the chances of a successful fomb.
Nóra Árvai
psychologist, perinatal counsellor for women with chronic illnesses,
As a psychologist and perinatal counsellor for women with chronic illnesses, I consider it a matter of the heart to support couples preparing for assisted reproduction, as this process is no small challenge from an emotional point of view. In today's post, I present our latest CD of deep relaxation and self-suggestion techniques to support couples in the calm experience and success of assisted reproductive procedures.
Stress is an obvious part of any assisted reproductive treatment, which is a problem because one of the biggest barriers to a successful fombie process is tension itself, chronic stress. It is crucial to manage stress, to learn effective yet gentle techniques that will help and support you in achieving a calm and balanced fombie process, thereby increasing your chances of success.
You can read more about this in my article Stress and fertility problems.
I am a hombie storybook
As a psychologist and perinatal counsellor in my practice, I work with people with chronic women's illnesses, so I often meet couples and women who have been helped by the latest advances in medicine to become mothers.
There are countless reasons for this, all unique stories, but all similar in some way: Most of the time it is a long, bumpy road to the use of assisted reproductive technologies, with months and years of cycle monitoring, a regular sex life, going from doctor to doctor, from test to test, the shock of an infertility diagnosis, the grief of the process, the resulting difficulties in the relationship, the loss of female/male self-worth, self-esteem and the questioning of faith in one's own body.
Then there are the treatments, the stimulation, the tests, the injections, the hassle, the side effects, the anxious waiting, the days, the weeks, the planning, the hoping, and then the failures, the three months before you can try again. And in three months, again, and again, until those two stripes on the pregnancy test go viral. And then comes the joy, the unearthly happiness, and then usually a nine months of heightened attention and anxiety.
This is the parents' page. But what about the baby, the growing child?
For modern psychology, there is no longer any question that human life begins not at birth, but at conception. And the period spent in the womb is a period of incredible significance in every human being's life, which has an impact on our later development and personality. The foetus is competent, already in this period it sees, hears, smells, moves, feels, experiences, discovers and interacts with its environment using its own means. Under the right conditions, using special methods that require a modified state of consciousness, these early experiences can be recalled, e.g. haptonomy, we can experience what it was like to be a foetus in the womb, relive our own birth, and even, with the help of a competent therapist, correctly "recode" the memories stored from this period.
In this reading, you can see why I started from Adam and Eve: you can guess: if life begins at conception, then embryos conceived by assisted reproduction have a very different experience from their naturally conceived counterparts.
These children feel and know on a cellular level that "something else is with them", but they have no idea what it is, and as such, as they grow up, they may experience inner insecurity and mistrust. They can infer this or that from the phrases spoken over their heads in the family, but unfortunately the child's imagination often misinterprets things and takes them in a different direction.
The meaning of the words flask, laboratory, injection is unknown to the child or is known to him from other contexts already associated with fear, which may frighten him and cause anxiety. I have had children with fombies who, for months, had nightmares of being locked in a freezer with their brothers and sisters - they were only children at the time - and woke up terrified at night, until their parents told them about the circumstances of their conception, playfully, in a way appropriate to their age, answering their questions and encouraging them to ask more questions. When a sentence slips out of the mouth of a well-meaning friend or acquaintance, the child often blames the parents: Why didn't you say it?
And really: why not? After all, there comes a time in every child's life when their favourite story becomes the story of their own coming into the world. Secrets and silences are always poisonous in a family, and a child's precise little radar detects at that moment anyway: something stinks. And if you want a baby brother or sister, he or she will most likely sit through another flask with you anyway, only this time as an outsider rather than a protagonist. You need to have something to say to the questions that arise. Why are there so many touch-not-touch medicines in the fridge? What are these shots, you're not sick, are you, Mom?
It's worth thinking about why, if you're reluctant to talk to your child about fombies. Maybe you're not okay with what's happened, ashamed, or you think, oh well, he's still little, he wouldn't understand, and then somehow things just slip away? If so, you might want to come to a for a consultation to put things right inside you.
If you yourself are okay with your flask story, and you are smiling at the "what nature doesn't give you, don't force it" comments of the forum trolls, and even if you don't read these forums anymore, you will be happy to tell your child about how he or she came into your heart, your life, your family.
Welcome my latest storybook that makes this conversation easy, intimate, fun and authentic!
Nóra Árva is a psychologist and perinatal counselling specialist,
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