The Birds and the Bees

If you really opened this blog with the slight idea that you were actually going to learn about the animals of birds and bees, then you should really question yourself, yikes .. jk! The term "birds and bees" typically refers to sex and the reproduction of a child. There are women in the world who are infertile and there are also many same sex couples that desire to have a baby. A procedure known as IVF (in vitro fertilization) can make it possible for these individuals to conceive a baby. This procedure has always fascinated me ever since a woman very close to me explained to me that she had to go through that in order to have a baby. I was not aware that she had gone through this process until a couple months ago when she was trying to conceive again; I am much older now and she thought it'd be beneficial to teach me about something that was so important in her life.

"Test Tube Babies"

Hahaha, but this is really how it is. Inside the plates, the sperm fertilizes
the egg. 

So from what she told me, here is how it goes. When a female gets her period one egg is produced in the uterus ready to be fertilized. If that egg does not get fertilized by the sperm within a specific amount of time, it will drop and that is how a female gets her period. With this very special lady, it is very different. Instead of producing one egg every month, she produces multiples of them and instead of the eggs maturing in order to become fertilized, they turn into cysts. This is known as polycystic ovary syndrome and it creates an irregular menstrual cycle. When she is ready to have a baby she has to inject different kinds of medicines inside her such as Follistim in order to stop the eggs from turning into cysts and allow them to mature so they can eventually become a baby. This is also followed by DAILY doctor checkups in which she gets ultrasounds to check on the eggs and their development. Once the eggs have matured, it can be very painful for her because they are big and there are so many of them. This is when she knows it is time to go in for her surgery in which all of those eggs are being removed. Whomever she chooses to be the biological father will then give his sperm up so that it can fertilize the egg. THE FERTILIZATION OCCURS OUTSIDE OF THE BODY. Lastly, the fertilized eggs are stored into a freezer ready for whenever the woman is ready to put however many she wants back inside her to have the baby. It is so great that life has evolved so that even women with infertility issues still have a chance to conceive but just know, the process is not cheap AT ALL.

Immature eggs under IVF. Sometimes the eggs are removed
from the body while already being mature and
sometimes they get matured outside of the body.

Want to know the most fascinating part to me about it all ?!?!? It's the 'egg and embryo quality assessment'. During the quality assessment, the eggs are examined in the IVF laboratory to determine which ones are of the highest quality. If an egg appears to have one too many chromosomes, it will not be used. The goal here is to choose the eggs that will produce the healthiest baby on this planet! Okay maybe that's a reach but you get the point. In these laboratories, scientists watch the eggs go under meiosis and they even test if an egg is capable of becoming a baby with the fertilization. In addition to egg and embryo quality assessment, there is a procedure known as Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis which is examining embryos with any genetic defects to be sure that one is not implanted. This procedure is especially beneficial for couples that may be carriers for a genetic disease and hope to produce a child that has no chance of developing that disease within their lifetime. Something also very cool is that it's possible to determine if the fertilized egg will develop into a boy or girl. Of course I am not an expert on any of this and there is so much that goes into this process, too much to type...but if you are interested, I recommend that you find out more information on this topic through clicking on the various links in this post.

Here is the visual process of the IVF procedure. 

So I hope that you have all learned something new about a topic that you probably didn't know much about and maybe you found as much interest in it as I did. After writing this blog, I learned more about IVF myself and it actually is making me consider studying human embryology.

Born through IVF or born through natural reproduction, all babies are the same. There have been myths I've read saying that IVF babies are smarter or sometimes may be unhealthier but evidence has shown this to not be true. And to see a beautiful child produced through IVF, just check out the pictures below.

9 years later and she is great! IVF babies don't look any
different. I wouldn't trade her for the world. 

Here's my sister. She is an IVF baby so I'm sure
you can assume who that very close lady to
me is.