What is the process of artificial insemination and what are the methods?

Getting pregnant and having a baby is the dream of every couple. If you cannot have children normally due to certain diseases or other factors, you can get pregnant through artificial insemination. So what is the process of artificial insemination? What are the methods of artificial insemination? The following editor will introduce you in detail.

What is the process of artificial insemination?

Confirm whether the conditions for artificial insemination are met: Artificial insemination can only be considered if the couple has had sexual intercourse but has not conceived naturally after 2 years. Artificial insemination is mainly used for male infertility.

Physical examination: female endocrine function examination, B-ultrasound examination, hysteroscopy, examination of infectious diseases, etc.

Ovulation monitoring: Ovulation is monitored by B-ultrasound to detect follicle development. Common methods for estimating the ovulation date include measuring basal body temperature, cervical mucus (usually appears 4-5 days before ovulation), or continuously measuring the peak of urine luteinizing hormone close to the ovulation day, or continuous vaginal ultrasound examination, etc. If necessary, ovulation can be promoted by auxiliary methods such as ovulation injections and ovulation pills.

Surgery: During the ovulation period of the woman, sperm is injected into the uterine cavity through a catheter and hysteroscope. Before the estimated ovulation period of the woman, the sperm donor or husband masturbates to extract semen, which needs to be tested. If the results show that the semen density and activity are normal, after the semen is liquefied, the semen is injected into the vagina, around the cervix and into the cervical canal with a syringe or catheter. The woman rests in bed for 2-3 hours to prevent the semen from being discharged.

Follow-up examination: If you feel severe physical discomfort after artificial insemination, you need to go to the hospital for a follow-up examination. Or after artificial insemination, if conception is normal, it usually takes 7 days. In this case, you can go to the hospital 7 days later to check whether the conception has been successful.

What are the methods of artificial insemination?

IVF

Since the birth of the first test-tube baby, Louise Brown, in 1978, artificial insemination has been the most basic non-natural way of pregnancy. Before undergoing test-tube fertilization, women usually take or inject some hormone drugs. With the help of drugs, women can discharge a large number of mature eggs. Doctors take these eggs out of the woman's body and take them to the laboratory for artificial insemination. The sperm is usually from the husband. After that, the doctor will implant multiple fertilized eggs into the woman's uterus at the same time.

Fertilization using adult cells

In early July, two teams of scientists from the United States and Australia announced that they had successfully tested pregnancy without sperm in mice. Researchers at Monash University in Australia have found that eggs can be fertilized using a single cell in an adult's body without sperm, a method that could one day be applied to infertile men.

Artificial insemination

Sperm taken from the male body is implanted into the female reproductive organ through a test tube. In the case of artificial insemination, whether it is fresh sperm or frozen sperm, the effect is the same. Of course, frozen sperm can only play its due role after thawing.

Pregnancy with donated sperm

If this method is used, the sperm used for artificial insemination by women does not come from their own sexual partners, but from anonymous sperm donors. This method involves placing the sperm donated by the sperm donor in a sperm bank, freezing it in liquid nitrogen, and retrieving it when needed.

Preimplantation IVF

This method is only suitable when one or both spouses have a genetic disease and the genetic disease can be passed on to the baby through pregnancy.

Intracytoplasmic sperm injection

Intracytoplasmic sperm injection is different from artificial insemination. First, it is used by men who cannot ejaculate sperm normally. Therefore, doctors need to surgically remove sperm from their testicles or epididymis, then implant a single sperm directly into the cytoplasm of the egg in the laboratory to fertilize it, and then implant the fertilized egg into the woman's uterus through normal methods.

Egg Donation and Surrogacy

Egg donation and surrogacy This method is based on artificial insemination. The difference is that the eggs used are not from the wife, but from an anonymous egg donor.

Doctors use sperm from the male partner to artificially fertilize the donated egg and then implant the fertilized egg into the wife's uterus. Egg donation and surrogacy are suitable for women who are unable to produce eggs.

Freezing eggs

After the eggs are removed from the ovaries, they are frozen in liquid nitrogen for use in artificial insemination at a later date. As with freezing sperm, this is usually done for people who know they have a disease and want to freeze their eggs before treatment.

Cloning technology

In the medical field of fertility research, there is still a red line that scientists dare not cross. Although countless scientists want to try, no one has succeeded so far. This red line is human cloning. After the birth of Dolly, the first cloned sheep, some people suggested that this method could also be used for humans.