Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART)

Raising a healthy family is an almost universal dream, but sadly one in six Australian couples face difficulty conceiving.

Assisted Reproductive Technologies describes a broad range of medical treatments used to help people conceive. It involves a series of complex procedures involving a woman’s egg and a man’s sperm. Examples include in vitro fertilisation (IVF), gamete intrafallopian transfer (GIFT) and zygote intrafallopian transfer (ZIFT).

Since the first IVF baby in Australia was born in 1980, more than 200,000 Australian babies have been born using ART. Today, Australia is among the highest per capita users of IVF, with about five per cent of children (one in every classroom) conceived using reproductive medicine such as IVF.

Who does ART help?

Hudson Institute’s role in IVF

Why is ART research needed?

Our Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) research

Hudson Institute researchers were the early pioneers of IVF treatment and continue to make important contributions to improving ART success rates, monitoring the long-term outcomes of reproductive technologies and their impact on health.

Predicting IVF success

Fertility treatment. Research into assisted reproductive technologies has largely focused on the production of viable embryos. However, to achieve a pregnancy, it is essential to have both a quality embryo (the seed) and a healthy receptive endometrium (the soil). Failure of either compromises the likelihood of pregnancy.

Dr Tracey Edgell’s research is focused on providing the optimum environment within the endometrium, or womb, for an embryo to implant and form a healthy pregnancy. The results of extensive collaboration with Monash Health clinicians Prof Beverley Vollenhoven and Prof Luk Rombauts to understand the role the endometrium in the failure of transferred embryos to progress and establish a healthy pregnancy has seen the development of an endometrial predictive assay to improve ART success rates.

This novel blood test is currently undergoing clinical evaluation to understand its potential contribution to the improvement of ART outcomes.

Team | Dr Tracey Edgell, Professor Lois A Salamonsen

Health and fertility of young men conceived using intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI)