The important thing is that we were helping the sperm of these eggs
get together when they wouldn't naturally be able to do that.
Essentially, this is where life is created in this room.
Pretty much, yes.
In the early eighties, IVF success rates average 10%.
Today, it's well over 30% for women under 35.
Although rates fall as you get older to about one
in ten for women in their early forties.
IVF success rates have been rising constantly
as new techniques have been introduced and improved.
With ICSI interest cytoplasmic sperm injection.
Sperm can now be injected straight into the egg using a tube
the thickness of a hair.
So this is how the IVF happens.
This helps when sperm quality is poor and they don't easily penetrate the egg.
And the egg still needs to go through the process of accepting the sperm inside.
But we have improved the odds of it happening by putting them together
in the same place.
If the egg
is fertilized, the cells would begin to divide
and the egg becomes an embryo.
However, not every embryo created in the lab
will lead on to a successful pregnancy.
There may be faults in the embryos, genes, problems with the way it develops,
or it may fail at the next stage, which is implanting
into the woman's womb.
But a recent breakthrough has helped increase chances
of picking a healthy embryo to transfer into the womb.
A timelapse camera inside the incubator
monitors the embryo while it's growing
because it takes pictures every 10 minutes.
You can put a video together and you can see the embryo going on from
1 to 3 cells to four cells,
and it continues the embryo development.
This allows the team to check constantly whether the embryos
are developing correctly and which ones look like the best bet.
But in this lab,
it's also possible to see some of the reasons it's
more difficult to become pregnant as you get older.
As you age,
It's not just the egg quantity that drops.
It's also the egg quality.
Some eggs collapse as soon as the sperm is injected
because they a membrane is too soft
while others develop a tougher membrane over time,
making it difficult to be fertilized as it's harder
for the sperm to get in.
It's not bursting,
so this membrane on the top from the bottom is not letting go.
This one comes from a woman about my age.
So with this egg, then B and likely to fertilize.
This one's less likely to fertilize and less likely to lead on to a baby.
Today it's hit home
how fragile our little eggs are,
and how they do age.
This is the ironic thing we all feel ten years younger.
40 is the new 25, a new 30.
But inside, we're all still
the same as we were 100 years ago.
The trend to have babies later
means more women are leaving it too late.
Their eggs are just unable to be fertilized,
and for some, their eggs have virtually run out.