Discover the women who led the way in advancing IVF technology

Meet the women who helped develop IVF, a way for couples who can’t have babies to still have children. IVF means fertilizing an egg with sperm outside the body.

Miriam Menkin and Dr. John Rock started studying how women get pregnant in the late 1930s. They did important research, and in 1944, they fertilized the first human egg outside the body.

Jean Purdy worked with British scientists Robert Edwards and Patrick Steptoe in the 1960s. Purdy was a nurse who learned about making babies in a lab. Together, they helped make the first IVF baby, Louise Brown, born in 1978.

In the U.S., Georgeanna Jones and her husband opened a clinic in 1978. They delivered the first American IVF baby, Elizabeth Carr, in 1981.

Elizabeth Carr, now grown up, tells people about IVF. She thinks everyone should be able to get IVF if they need it.

These women faced challenges, but they made IVF possible. Now, many couples can have children thanks to IVF.

IVF is important for couples who can’t have babies naturally. Elizabeth Carr still talks about IVF to help more people get the treatment they need.

Thanks to these women, IVF has changed many lives. Their work continues to inspire doctors and scientists to find new ways to help people have babies.

Repurposed article originally published in Today