The rest of the story

To continue on with the history of infertility, I found a website that gives a good history of what has happened and developed between the first uses of insemination and now.

The history:
 1884: The first known U.S. sperm donor enables a couple to have a child.

1937: The idea of in vitro (Latin for "dish," as opposed to "in vivo," or "in body") fertilization (IVF) is proposed in the editorial “Conception in a Watch Glass” in the New England Journal of Medicine. IVF is fertilization of an egg outside the body where the resulting embryo is typically transferred to a woman’s womb for gestation.

1938: Freezing of sperm is found to be successful for the first time.

1945: The British Medical Journal publishes early reports regarding artificial insemination using donor sperm. This subject raises concerns in the press and in Parliament. Despite recommendations by the ARchbishop of Canterbury to criminalize artificial insemination using donor sperm, the government feels such action would drive the actions underground, and sperm donation is discouraged rather than criminalized.

1955: Four children are born as a result of the use of frozen sperm.

1967: The Vatican condemns IVF and all other forms of test tube births.

1969: Robert G. Edwards, the English embryologist who will one day help create the first "test-tube" baby, publishes an article in Nature about the artificial fertilization of human eggs.

1972: A U.S. scientist successfully fertilizes an egg in vitro.

1973: A Florida couple become the first to attempt in vitro fertilization in the U.S.

The first IVF pregnancy in the world is reported in Australia, but it ends in death in the unborn child’s early development.

1978: History is made with the birth of Louise Brown, the first test-tube baby, in England (it was the 104th attempt by Drs. Patrick Steptoe and Robert Edwards).

1981: The first IVF baby, Elizabeth Carr, is conceived in the U.S.

1983: The world’s first baby is born from frozen human embryos.

1984: Zoe Leyland is the first U.S. birth from a frozen embryo.

The world’s first baby is born in Australia who is conceived from a donated egg.

Dr. Richard Ash from the University of Texas discovers a simpler way to perform IVF: gamete intra-fallopian transfer, or GIFT. Also developed is the technique zygote intra-fallopian transfer (ZIFT).

1985: The first IVF twins are born from frozen embryos in Australia.

1986: A surrogate mother in New Jersey, Mary Beth Whitehead, sues to keep the baby she carried. She loses custody but wins visitation rights.

1987: The embryo transfer procedure is patented, starting a trend among fertility specialists (and later genetists) of patenting the processes and products of human tissue manipulation.

1988: 3,000 babies are born using the IVF procedure.

1988: Gamate intra-fallopian transfer (GIFT), the procedure that places unfertilized eggs and sperm into the woman’s Fallopian tube, is introduced. The technique produces the first successful pregnancies.

1991: A 42-year-old woman becomes the "mother" of her own grandchild. Arlette Schweitzer serves as a gestational surrogate for her duaghter, becomes pregnant with an egg donated by her daughter, and sperm donated by her daughter’s husband.

1993: Becki and Keith Dilley of Indiana become parents of the only living sextuplets in the U. S.

A new male infertility treatment is introduced called Sperm Micro Injection (ICSI). The ICSI technique injects one sperm into the egg.

1994: In Italy a postmenopausal woman, Rosanna Della Corte, uses donated eggs and her husband’s sperm to give birth at the age of 62.

In December of 1994, President Bill Clinton announces that federal funds will not be used to create human embryos for the sole purpose of research. They can, however, be used to fund research on excess embryos created through IVF.

1996: In Woodward v. Commission of Social Security, Lauren Woodward sues for social security for her twin daughters conceived with her dead husband’s frozen sperm. She wins the case.

1997: After taking a fertility drug, Bobbi McCaughey, of Iowa, gave birth to four boys and three girls. They are the only septuplets alive to date.

The first embryo-adoption program in the U.S, Snowflakes, is founded by a Christian adoption agency. It begins matching donor embryos with infertile women.

The first U.S. woman gives birth to a baby conceived from a frozen egg.

This and more can be found at http://www.christianliferesources.com/?library/view.php&articleid=339

Granted there have been a lot of changes since 1997 and a lot of these practices have become more effective and efficient. Knowing where infertility has gone can help us know where it is going and how many opportunities we have. It really is wonderful!