Question

Answer in 200 to 250 words:
What is infertility? How is infertility treated by assisted reproductive technologies like GIFT and ICSI?

Answer 1

Infertility is the inability of a couple to produce a child even after having unprotected intercourse. Infertility could be due to abnormalities in male or female or in both partners.

Assisted reproductive technology (ART) is the technology used for fertility treatment and surrogacy. It is also known as in-vitro fertilization. The two techniques of ART which can be used for the treatment of infertility are:

• Gamete Intrafallopian transfer (GIFT): If a female is unable to produce the egg but has the ability to conceive, then by this technique the egg from a donor is transferred to the fallopian tube of the female.
  
• Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI): In this case, the genetic material of the sperm is directly injected into the cytoplasm of the egg cell. This increases the chances of fertilisation and the fertilised egg is then implanted into the uterus of the mother.