Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) refers to using methods used to achieve pregnancy by artificial or partially artificial means, without sexual intercourse. These procedures include all fertility treatments in which both eggs and sperm are handled, and also reproductive treatments involving a 3rd party, eg. a sperm donor. Such procedures do not include treatments in which only sperm are handled or procedures whereby a woman takes hormonal medicinal stimulate egg production.
The first step includes taking medical tests to diagnose infertility, and determine the best treatment to help a woman become pregnant. Some Assisted Reproductive Technology treatments are more time-consuming, invasive and expensive than others. For example, one Assisted Reproductive Technology treatment, resorted to when other means have not been successful, is Vitro Fertilization (IVF). It involves surgically removing eggs (ova) from a woman’s ovaries, fertilizing them with sperm in the laboratory, and returning them to the woman’s body or donating them to another woman.
There are no long-term health effets which have been linked to children born using Assisted Reproductive Technology procedures. Most doctors, however, recommend such procedures as a last resort for having a baby. The success of any fertility procedures depends, in part on the female’s age.
» Read more: Assisted Reproductive Technology and Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis
