At first, infertility was perceived a divine rather than a medical condition, and the inability to have children was thought as either a judgement or a trial from God. Today IVF is considered as one of the most effective and useful ways for treatment of infertility but it has gone through decades of evolution to become such a compelling method. 

Sperm had been discovered in semen back in 1677, whereas it wasn’t until 1843 when scientists found out that conception occurs when a sperm enters an ovum. With this basic knowledge, research could be launched. 

The world welcomed a new era 41 years ago as the firts IVF baby was born on July 25, 1978. Louise Joy Brown was delivered at Oldham District General Hospital in Manchester, England, to parents Lesley and Peter Brown. Before giving birth to Louise, Lesley Brown had suffered years of infertility due to blocked fallopian tubes. In November 1977, she underwent the then-experimental IVF - a procedure that implants a fertilized egg into the uterus. It had taken 102 IVF treatments to achieve the first pregnancy. In 2010 the Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to Robert Edwards for the development of in vitro fertilization.

The next major IVF breakthrough came in 1987, when the use of donor eggs became available. Prior to that, the first successful egg donation pregnancies occurred in 1983 - a 25 year-old female with secondary amenorrhea and premature ovarian failure became the first person to successfully deliver a pregnancy using a donor egg.

Nowadays, researchers around the world continue the journey that took place decades ago and the boundaries of what is possible with IVF are constantly being enlarged.