(Primary) Infertility: The standard medical definition of infertility is the inability to conceive after twelve months of noncontraceptive, targeted intercourse, but for couples who are charting (or women over thirty-five) the time frame is six months. The definition should also include mothers unable to carry any pregnancy to term.
Secondary Infertility: The inability to conceive and/or carry a baby to term after doing so at least once before.
Sterility: A permanent condition inhibiting conception.
Zygote: A fertilized egg in the single-cell phase—i.e., an undivided fertilized egg.
Embryo: A fertilized egg that has begun the division process that will result in a fully formed person; used by scientists to refer to a baby until it reaches the fetal stage.
Fetus: Term used by the scientific community to refer to a preborn child eight weeks or older.
ART (Assisted Reproductive Technologies): Any procedure in which both eggs and semen are extracted from a woman and a man and manipulated with the intention of producing a baby.
IVF (In Vitro Fertilization): From the Latin for "in glass," the fertilization of an egg with a sperm in an artificial environment, namely a petri dish, and the subsequent implantation of the embryo in the uterus.
AIH (Homologous Artificial Insemination): Injection of a husband’s processed semen into his wife’s genital tract.
AID (Heterologous Artificial Insemination): Injection of a donor’s (not the husband) processed semen into a married woman’s genital tract.
IUI (Intrauterine Insemination): Technique by which processed sperm are injected into the uterus with a catheter.
Multifetal Pregnancy Reduction: A euphemism used to describe the abortion of one or more children (at eight to twelve weeks) sharing the same womb. Unlike most abortions, the dead baby’s body is resorbed by the mother’s body.
Embryo Cryopreservation: The freezing of leftover embryos produced via IVF.
Assisted Hatching: An IVF technique of micromanipulation that uses an acidic solution to dissolve the shell around a two-to-three-day-old embryo to improve chances of implantation.
ICSI (Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection): A technique by which a single sperm is injected in vitro into an extracted egg; used in cases of acute male infertility.
GIFT (Gamete Intrafallopian Transfer): An ART procedure in which multiple eggs and processed semen are placed into a catheter and then injected into the fallopian tubes so that fertilization may occur.
ZIFT (Zygote Intrafallopian Transfer): An ART procedure in which multiple eggs are actually fertilized in the laboratory with processed semen; the resulting zygotes are then injected into the fallopian tubes. Also known as PROST (Pronuclear Stage Transfer).
TOTS (Tubal Ovum Transfer with Sperm): An ART procedure in which semen is collected from a perforated condom (rather than masturbation) and placed with one or more eggs into a tube where they are kept separate from one another by an air bubble. The semen and eggs are then injected into the fallopian tubes. This technique is rarely performed anymore.
