I think sara's point was more to do with regulations/approvals than who Did the first successful IVF birth.!
The purpose of this introduction is to acknowledge those who initiated new steps in the development of the treatment protocols and techniques that we now use facilitating such simple and promising IVF-ET procedures.
In 1932, ‘Brave New World’ was published by Aldous Huxley. In this science fiction novel, Huxley realistically described the technique of IVF as we know it. Five years later in 1937, an editorial appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM 1937, 21 October) which is note worthy.
"Conception in a watch glass: The ‘Brave New World’ of Aldous Huxley may be nearer realization. Pincus and Enzmann have started one step earlier with the rabbit, isolating an ovum, fertilizing it in a watch glass and reimplanting it in a doe other than the one which furnished the oocyte and have thus successfully inaugurated pregnancy in the unmated animal. If such an accomplishment with rabbits were to be duplicated in the human being, we should in the words of ‘flaming youth’ be ‘going places.’"
In 1934 Pincus and Enzmann, from the Laboratory of General Physiology at Harvard University, published a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, raising the possibility that mammalian eggs can undergo normal development in vitro. Fourteen years later, in 1948, Miriam Menken and John Rock retrieved more than 800 oocytes from women during operations for various conditions. One hundred and thirty-eight of these oocytes were exposed to spermatozoa in vitro. In 1948, they published their experiences in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
However, it was not until 1959 that indisputable evidence of IVF was obtained by Chang.
Fertilization of rabbit ova in vitro. Nature, 1959 8:184 (suul 7) 466) who was the first to achieve births in a mammal (a rabbit) by IVF. The newly-ovulated eggs were fertilized, in vitro by incubation with capacitated sperm in a small Carrel flask for 4 hours, thus opening the way to assisted procreation.
Professionals in the fields of microscopy, embryology, and anatomy laid the foundations for future achievements. The recent rapid growth of IVF-ET and related techniques worldwide are further supported by the social and scientific climate which favours their continuation.
Through the years numerous modifications have been made in the development of IVF-ET in humans: refinement of fertilization and embryo culture media; earlier transfer of the embryo; improvements in equipment; use of a reduced number of spermatozoa in the fertilization dish, embryo biopsy among others.
The purpose of this introduction is to acknowledge those who initiated new steps in the development of the treatment protocols and techniques that we now use facilitating such simple and promising IVF-ET procedures.
1961
Palmer from France described the first retrieval of oocytes by laparoscopy.
1965
In 1965, Robert Edwards together with Georgeanna and Howard Jones at Johns Hopkins Hospital in the USA attempted to fertilize human oocytes in vitro (Edwards RG, Donahue RP, Baramki TA, Jones HW Jr. Preliminary attempts to fertilize human oocytes matured in vitro. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 1966; 15;96:192-200).
1973
The first IVF pregnancy was reported by the Monash research team of Professors Carl Wood and John Leeton in Melbourne, Australia. Unfortunately, this resulted in early miscarriage (dDe Kretzer D, Dennis P, Hudson B, Leeton J, Lopata A, Outch K, Talbot J, Wood C. Transfer of a human zygote. Lancet, 1973 29;2:728-9).
1976
Yves Meneso
Y. Menezo developed the world's first B2 culture medium, known as ‘the French medium’. This specific medium reflected the follicular, tubal and uterine environments of the sheep, rabbits and humans.
Steptoe and Edwards published a report on an ectopic pregnancy following transfer of a human embryo at the late morulae /early blastocyst stage. (Steptoe PC, Edwards RG. Reimplantation of a human embryo with subsequent tubal pregnancy. Lancet, 1976; 24:1:880-2).
1978
The first ever IVF birth occurred in Oldham, England on July 25, 1978. This birth was the result of the collaborative work of Patrick Steptoe and Robert Edwards (Steptoe PC, Edwards RG. Birth after the reimplantation of a human embryo. Lancet, 1978 ; 12;2:366).
www.ivf-worldwide.com/ivf-history.html