From one birth in 1978 to millions: how IVF became routine

25 July 1978

Louise Brown was born in Britain on 25 July 1978, the first baby conceived through in vitro fertilisation (Encyclopaedia Britannica). The work behind her birth was led by the physiologist Robert Edwards and the gynaecologist Patrick Steptoe, who fertilised her mother's egg in the laboratory and transferred the resulting embryo a few days later.

The birth was the result of years of failures, and of decades of earlier research on fertilisation and embryo development in animals. Much of that groundwork was published in specialist journals, including the Journal of Reproduction and Fertility, one of the titles whose archive is referenced on this site. A 1981 review in that journal, "An historical look at embryo transfer" by K. J. Betteridge, traces how embryo transfer developed in animals long before it was used in human medicine.

A Nobel Prize, 32 years later

In 2010 Robert Edwards received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the development of IVF. Patrick Steptoe could not share it: he had died in 1988, and the prize is not awarded posthumously. When the prize was announced, the Nobel committee cited a figure of about four million babies born through IVF (Nobel prize for scientist Professor Robert G Edwards, review in PMC). Edwards was also a founder of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) and its first chairman, in 1985.

How many IVF babies today?

The International Committee Monitoring Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ICMART) collects registry data from around the world. A study based on its data, published in Fertility and Sterility and presented by the University of New South Wales in July 2025, estimates that 10 to 13 million babies were born after IVF between 1978 and 2018, and 13 to 17 million once preliminary data up to 2024 are added (UNSW, July 2025). The range reflects countries and clinics that report incompletely.

ESHRE's fact sheet on assisted reproduction gives the yearly scale: more than 3 million treatment cycles are reported to ICMART each year, and, adjusting for countries and clinics that do not report, ESHRE estimates about 4 million cycles and about one million babies a year worldwide (ESHRE, ART fact sheet). Europe performs roughly half of all reported cycles.

What changed along the way

• Freezing: embryos, and later eggs, can now be frozen and used later. Frozen embryo transfers now have success rates at least as high as fresh ones in UK national data.
• ICSI: injecting a single sperm into an egg made treatment possible for many couples with male-factor infertility.
• One embryo at a time: transferring a single embryo has cut the rate of twins and triplets. In the UK, the IVF multiple birth rate was 3.4% in 2023, against a regulatory target of 10% (see IVF success rates explained).
• Regulation: the UK created a statutory regulator, the HFEA, which publishes national outcome data and rates optional add-ons (see IVF add-ons: what the evidence shows).

From exception to statistic

In the UK, about one baby in 32 born in 2023 was conceived through IVF, according to the HFEA. In some European countries, ESHRE reports that assisted reproduction accounts for more than 4% of births; in the United States, the share is slightly over 1%.

Those figures hide wide differences in access. The WHO notes that fertility care is rarely included in national health coverage and remains largely unavailable or unaffordable in many low- and middle-income countries, even though infertility is about as common there as in rich countries (see how common is infertility?).

What has not changed

IVF did not change the biology of age. A treatment that can bring an egg and a sperm together cannot make an egg younger, and success rates still fall steeply after the late thirties. That is one reason egg freezing has grown so quickly, and why the rising age at first birth, discussed in why people have children later, matters for fertility services.

Where to read the science

The animal research that made IVF possible, and much of the later work on embryos, gametes and the endocrinology of reproduction, appeared in journals referenced in the archive on this site. Each reference page links to the publisher's version of the article through its DOI; our short guide to DOIs and the reference archive explains how that works.

Regulation follows

The arrival of IVF raised questions that law had never had to answer: who the parents are when donated eggs or sperm are used, how long embryos can be stored, what research on embryos is acceptable. In the UK, a government inquiry chaired by Mary Warnock reported in 1984, and the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 created the HFEA as a statutory regulator for fertility treatment and embryo research. Other countries chose different rules, which is one reason access to treatments such as egg donation varies so much across Europe.

IVF beyond infertility

IVF techniques are now used for purposes beyond treating infertility. Testing embryos for a specific serious inherited condition allows some couples to avoid passing it on. Freezing eggs, sperm or embryos before cancer treatment can preserve the possibility of having children later. Donor eggs and sperm, and surrogacy where it is legal, have opened parenthood to people who could not otherwise have genetic or gestational children.

Each of these uses has its own regulation, evidence and debates. What they share is the laboratory technique first shown to work in 1978. For the questions to ask before choosing optional extras, see IVF add-ons: what the evidence shows.