In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is a common type of assisted reproductive technology (ART) used to help people conceive a baby.
Infertility is defined as being unable to conceive after at least 12 months of trying. Infertility could be due to problems with egg or sperm production, female or male reproductive systems, or underlying health conditions.
Subfertility is when someone has difficulty getting pregnant, meaning it might take longer than expected or require help from doctors.
IVF combines eggs and sperm in a laboratory culture dish so fertilisation can take place. Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) injects one sperm into one egg to fertilise the egg directly. The goal is to transfer a live embryo into the woman’s uterus so that it can grow into a healthy baby.
The first people born through IVF are now around 40 years old and the first ICSI babies are about 20. We can now study the long-term health and development of children, adolescents and even adults conceived by ART.
Who does it affect?
Who does it affect?
- About one in six couples of reproductive age in Australia has trouble getting pregnant.
- Australia pioneered the use of IVF with the first Australian IVF baby born in Melbourne in 1980. Since then, more than 200,000 babies have been born in Australia with the help of ART.
- One in every 25 babies in Australia is now conceived using ART.
Our IVF research
Our IVF research
In 2010, when Australia celebrated 30 years of IVF, we began a ground-breaking study of the first generation of IVF-conceived young adults, aged 18 years and over. The study compared them with a group of similar-aged young adults conceived without the use of ART.
We conducted telephone interviews, saw them in a clinical setting and surveyed their health and wellbeing. We followed up with them again when they were around 31 years old.
We have also been studying young men conceived after ICSI, which is most often used when the person providing the sperm has fertility problems.
Our research has most recently expanded to examine possible environmental and lifestyle risk factors for male infertility.
Impacts of our research
Impacts of our research
- The world’s largest study of clinical assessments on IVF-conceived adults revealed that cardiovascular, respiratory and/or growth problems are not associated with IVF. This is reassuring for children and their parents.
- We're showing that children conceived through IVF are not at any increased risk of health problems when they reach adulthood.
- Our research found that any effect that ART has on babies’ genes is largely corrected by adulthood.
- We continue to contribute to widely available information about the effect of ART on babies and young adults.
Our vision
Our vision
We aim to provide research evidence on the safety of ART procedures by measuring the long term health and wellbeing of any child born using these conception methods. It is important for current and future parents, as well as their health service providers, to have this knowledge when planning a family.
Where to next?
Where to next?
About one in 15 men have fertility issues, yet not much is known about the causes of male infertility or subfertility. This makes it hard for health professionals to develop new and more effective ART. Our future research will explore what environmental and lifestyle factors might be contributing to unexplained male infertility.
We're also exploring whether parents' infertility or the ART process affects the genes of the embryo very early in pregnancy, potentially causing more premature or underweight births compared to spontaneously conceived babies.
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