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. 2015;7(2):137-43.

Artificial insemination history: hurdles and milestones

W Ombelet  1 , J Van Robays  2
Affiliations

Artificial insemination history: hurdles and milestones

W Ombelet et al. Facts Views Vis Obgyn. 2015.

Abstract

Artificial insemination with homologous (AIH) or donor semen (AID) is nowadays a very popular treatment procedure used for many subfertile women worldwide. The rationale behind artificial insemination is to increase gamete density at the site of fertilisation. The sequence of events leading to today's common use of artificial insemination traces back to scientific studies and experimentation many centuries ago. Modern techniques used in human artificial insemination programmes are mostly adapted from the work on cattle by dairy farmers wishing to improve milk production by using artificial insemination with sperm of selected bulls with well chosen genetic traits. The main reason for the renewed interest in artificial insemination in human was associated with the refinement of techniques for the preparation of washed motile spermatozoa in the early years of IVF. The history of artificial insemination is reviewed with particular interest to the most important hurdles and milestones.

Keywords: Artificial insemination; assisted reproduction; history; human; intrauterine insemination; semen.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. Picture of Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723).
Fig. 2
Fig. 2. The 17th century conception of spermatozoa (A van Leeuwenhoek).
Fig. 3
Fig. 3. John Hunter wrote the first report of artificial insemination in medical literature in 1790.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4. The first report of post-coital tests and the first description of 55 inseminations was done by JM Simms (US) in the 1850s (Source: South Med J, Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins 2004).
Fig. 5
Fig. 5. In 1922 Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov (Russia) developed the methods of artificial insemination as we know them today.
Fig. 6
Fig. 6. Bob Edwards: IVF pioneer and winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (speaker at the “Andrology in the Nineties” meeting in Genk, 1995).
Fig. 7
Fig. 7. Most important milestones in the history of artificial insemination.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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