Making babymaking better

After Louise brownIVF IVFivf was born in Manchester in July 1978, her parents’ neighbours were surprised to see that the world’s first “test-tube baby” was “normal”: two eyes, ten fingers, ten toes. In the 45 years since, in vitro fertilisation has become for infertility around the world. At least 12m people have been conceived in glassware. An baby takes its first gulp of air roughly every 45 seconds. babies are just as healthy and unremarkable as any others. Yet to their parents, most of whom struggle with infertility for months or years, they are nothing short of miraculous.In a world where one person in six suffers from infertility, such successes are rightly celebrated. Less discussed are of . Most courses of treatment fail. That subjects women and couples to cycles of dreaming and dejection—and gives the fertility industry an incentive to sell false hope. The obstacle is a lack of progress in understanding that determine fertility. At last, however, the science is making headway, holding out more promise and less heartache for generations of parents to come.