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What is Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART)?
Although various definitions have been used, ART includes all fertility treatments in
which both eggs and sperm are manipulated. In general, ART involves
surgically removing eggs from a woman's ovaries, combining them with
sperm in the laboratory, and returning them to the woman's body or
donating them to another woman. It does NOT include procedures in which
only sperm are manipulated (i.e., artificial insemination or
intrauterine insemination) or procedures in which a woman takes drugs
only to stimulate egg production, without the intention of having eggs
retrieved.
The types of ART include:
- IVF (In Vitro Fertilization).
- GIFT (Gamete Intrafallopian Transfer).
- ZIFT (Zygote Intrafallopian Transfer).
- TET (Tubal Embryo Transfer)
In addition, ART is often categorized according to whether the procedure
used a woman's own eggs (nondonor) or eggs from another woman (donor)
and according to whether the embryos used were newly fertilized
(fresh) or previously fertilized, frozen, and then thawed (frozen).
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