Extracorporeal fertilization and embryo transfer in the treatment of infertility.

The study of human fertilization has assumed greater clinical importance as extracorporeal fertilization has been increasingly used to treat infertility. In vitro fertilization has advanced from years of struggle that preceded a single success to some programs that are able to establish pregnancy in a fifth or more of treatment cycles. The simpler procedure of donation of an early conceptus from an artificially inseminated female, now routine in animal husbandry, has only been recently accomplished in humans. With further refinements in methods of in vitro fertilization, virtually all women with an anatomically intact and healthy uterus may be able to establish a successful pregnancy.