There are a variety of definitions to be found of what exactly Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) is, but it basically comes down to all fertility treatments and procedures in which eggs, sperm and embryos are medically handled or manipulated, and the process of sexual intercourse is bypassed.
This can be done in a variety of ways, such as surgically retrieving eggs from women’s ovaries or sperm from the testes, combining i.e. mixing eggs with sperm in a laboratory, or implanting embryos in a woman’s uterus, and such.
In some ART definitions, treatments like In Vitro Fertilization (IVF), Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI), cryopreservation of gametes or embryos (freezing), and fertility medication are included in the definition, in others not.
In any case, as infertility rates tend to increase globally, ever more singles and couples are using ART to have a baby.
