Superhero IVF Saves The World! The Fight Against Underpopulation
By Vlada Yarosh
Over the years, since “The Population Bomb” written by. Paul R. Ehrlich was published in the 1960s, the belief that the world will become dangerously overpopulated became stuck in our heads. It wasn’t true then and is not true now, but some of us still believe in this theory. You might say, “But the population is still growing, right?”. According to Harvard’s political economist Nicholas Eberstadt:
it is not that people “reproduce like bunnies” rather that they “no longer die like flies.”
We can prove his words by taking the view of the number of new ways of treatments and mortality rate. The problem we face in the near future is underpopulation, artificially created by us because of the senseless and empty struggle against the fake problem of overpopulation. For now, the global fertility rate is 2.1 children per woman. That is not enough to replace generations. So currently countries are barely replacing themselves. The picture below shows us the world map with the fertility rate. As we can see the number of children per woman in most parts of the world is extremely low.
There are a huge number of reasons why underpopulation is happening: financial crisis, economic decline, cultural and social factors, emigration, political instability, natural disasters, as well as an increase in infertility and miscarriages. Wars that are happening now make the situation even worse than it ever has been. Some countries are already fighting against underpopulation with cash payments for a second child and banning abortion. But will it be effective?
About 1 out of 5 women are unable to get pregnant after one year of trying. And the number of unfertilised people is only increasing in both cases, women and men. It is top priority to explore innovative solutions to address this issue without resorting to drastic measures. In-vitro fertilization (IVF) is one of the solutions that offers a unique perspective on managing population growth sustainably. IVF has been a source of hope and joy for countless families worldwide, but it can also be viewed as a potential solution to underpopulation.
Let’s take a look at how the process of natural fertilization occurs:
Imagine a fertilization process as a race with 300 million sports cars and with only one winner. During sexual intercourse, about 300 million sperm (or a sports car) enter the woman’s vaginal canal. The main challenge for these sperm is getting through the cervix, which is usually closed but opens during a woman’s ovulation. They swim forward to get through the cervix. (Like cars going to the start point of a race) While many sperm don’t make it and crash, some stay trapped in there as a backup. Inside the uterus, muscular contractions help the sperm to move (as a soft road in the highway), but the female immune system mistakenly eliminates thousands, thinking of them as invaders.
Then they have a choice to go right or left ( as a fork in the road), half of the sperm make a wrong decision and go to an empty fallopian tube, while the other half goes towards the tube with the unfertilized egg (the finish of the race). At this point, only a few thousand sperm are left. The sperm must swim forward to reach the egg, and some get caught in microscopic hairs and die. Finally, the sperm reach the egg, but there are only a few dozen left. The egg is surrounded by a layer of cells called the corona radiata (like a dark forest which drivers of the race should go through), which the sperm must penetrate to reach the egg’s outer layer, the Zona Pellucida.
When they reach it, the sperm attach to special receptors on its surface, which triggers the release of enzymes from the sperms’ acrosomes. These enzymes help the sperm break through this layer. (The driver of the race gets out of his car and continues running to the final spot) The first sperm to make contact fertilizes the egg by releasing its genetic material. (VICTORY) Afterward, a new membrane forms around the male genetic material, creating the male pronucleus. Simultaneously, the female genetic material starts dividing after the sperm and egg fuse, forming the female pronucleus. Thread-like structures called microtubules bring the two sets of chromosomes together.
This marks the end of fertilization and establishes a unique genetic code that instantly determines characteristics like sex, hair color, and eye color. This single-cell zygote is the start of a new human life. Guided by the cilia in the fallopian tube, it travels to the uterus, where it attaches to the nourishing uterine lining. Over the next nine months, it grows and develops, preparing for birth.
Here is a step-by-step overview of how IVF typically works:
Pre-IVF Checklist is an essential part of the process, to make sure that it works for a woman. It contains blood tests, ultrasound, sperm tests, IVF counselling, IVF education, and collecting medications.
Stimulation: Normally, a woman releases one egg during her monthly menstrual cycle, but IVF aims to retrieve multiple eggs to increase the likelihood of successful fertilization. Stimulation starts when a woman is given hormonal medications (fertility drugs) called FSH injections to stimulate the ovaries to produce multiple mature eggs (normally 7–10). In the first picture, we can see an ovary with a lot of black circles — these are astral follicles. The next picture illustrates the dominant follicle that contains a stimulated egg.
10 eggs mean that the woman will have 10 chances to get pregnant in one month. Then the woman will give the FSH injections to herself every evening from the second day of the period.
The prevention of ovulation is the next part of stimulation (it is vital to keep eggs in ovaries), and the GnRH antagonist is used to do so. On day 6 she will start the antagonist medication every morning for approximately 6 days, until the next blood test on estrogen, progesterone and Lh level. Monitoring them will be done by blood tests and ultrasounds. Then it’s vital to choose the right time to collect the eggs. The next step is to apply the hCG trigger injection, and after 36 hours the woman will be ready for egg collection.
Monitoring and Egg Retrieval: The eggs’ progress is closely monitored using blood tests and ultrasound to determine when the eggs are ready for retrieval. When the eggs are mature, a minor surgical procedure called egg retrieval is performed. To do the egg collection an internal ultrasound is used to find the ovaries. A thin needle is guided through the vaginal wall to access the ovaries, where the eggs are aspirated. The fluid with eggs then drips into the test tube, then it will be replaced Into the lab.
Sperm Collection: On the same day as the egg retrieval, a sperm sample is collected from the male partner or a sperm donor. The sperm is prepared in the laboratory by spinning it in a centrifuge machine to separate low-mobility sperm from mobile sperm.
Fertilization: There are two ways to fertilize an egg.
- Conventional IVF is made by putting the egg into the liquid with an amount of sperm and leaving it for eighteen to twenty hours.
- ICSI is when a few of the strongest sperm are chosen out of the rest and injected directly into each egg. Often, this method is used for non-active sperm or low sperm count.
Embryo Development: After fertilization, the resulting embryos are monitored in the laboratory for several days, typically up to five or six days. On the second day, the embryo starts dividing — first into two cells then into four and by the third day, there should be eight cells. Then the embryo starts squishing together and it becomes a morula. On day five the blastocyst is formed by replacing the cells around the edge which will form the placenta and a bunch of cells in the center that will form a baby.
Embryo Selection: The best-quality embryos are selected for transfer to the woman’s uterus. The number of embryos transferred is typically limited to reduce the risk of multiple pregnancies, as multiples carry higher health risks for both the mother and the babies.
Embryo Transfer: The selected embryos are transferred into the woman’s uterus through a thin catheter. A thin tube will be inserted through the cervix and the embryo will be pushed into the uterine cavity.
Luteal Phase Support: The Luteal Phase is the phase of your menstrual cycle that occurs right after ovulation (when your ovary releases an egg) Hormonal medications, such as progesterone, are often prescribed to support the uterine lining and embryo implantation. These medications are continued for a certain period after the embryo transfer.
Pregnancy Test: Approximately 10–14 days after the embryo transfer, a blood test is performed to determine if pregnancy has occurred. If successful, the pregnancy is monitored with ultrasound scans to ensure the embryo has been implanted correctly and is developing as expected.
IVF is now used by thousands of women around the world. It is a morally challenging and expensive procedure, but it is worth the gamble.
There are so many innovative projects and technologies in the field of IVF that can be widely used in the future not only to solve world problems such as underpopulation. It can be dangerous for the health of some women to go through the whole IVF process. There is also the risk of miscarriage and death before and after childbirth. The maternal mortality rate is still high in some countries.
For women who know they’re pregnant, about 10 to 20 in 100 pregnancies (10 to 20 percent) end in miscarriage. Miscarriage is a direct threat to the mother’s health and can occur for a myriad of reasons: chromosomal abnormalities, maternal age, infections, immunological disorders, medical conditions, environmental factors, lifestyle factors, etc. In the graph below we can see an increase in miscarriages since 1970.
In order to save health and thousands of women’s lives, it is necessary to be under constant doctor’s care and to keep yourself healthy in every possible way. Due to surrounding factors such as wars, pandemics and crises, it is more difficult than ever to do so.
Now we are witnessing a rapid evolution of technology and IVF has not been spared from this evolution. In the future, women will have the option of not carrying a baby for 9 months before delivery, from the first conception the child will be able to develop separately from the mother’s body. The pain of childbirth, which every pregnant woman experiences, as well as its risks, will be a thing of the past. In the graph attached below, we can see the hormone surges (3 huge increases) in women during labor. These huge swings lead to countless complications for many women.
For several years now, a project called ECTOLIFE has been under development, where scientists are developing capsules (artificial uteruses). Such a laboratory can accommodate up to 400 artificial uteruses and can incubate about 30,000 babies per year.
Each capsule fully replicates the conditions of a natural female uterus. Each capsule is equipped with an artificial intelligence system that continuously monitors vital signs such as heartbeat, respiratory rate, blood pressure and body temperature. The capsule is connected to an application on the parent’s phone, where all the indicators and the level of development of the child will be displayed in real-time. To ensure that the baby from the moment of fetal formation is close to the mother, the capsule is equipped with speakers through which the baby will hear the mother’s voice. It will also be able to reproduce other sounds: classical music, words or other sounds.
All these functions will also be controlled from the parents’ phones. Another function of the capsule is the camera built inside, which allows you to look at the world through the eyes of your child. To feel the touch of your baby even before its birth, a special suit will be provided, which will accurately produce the movements of the child who is in the capsule. The baby will receive nutrients through an artificial umbilical cord, which is connected to central bioreactors. One of the reactors contains oxygen, nutrients and amniotic fluid in which the baby is placed. Thanks to artificial intelligence, each baby will receive the substances it needs. The second reactor is designed to remove waste products from the baby’s body. With the help of special enzymes, the liquid from the second reactor will undergo a large number of changes, saturated with nutrients and returned to the first reactor.
Before the embryo is placed in the capsule, ICSI (ICSI is when a few of the most strong sperms are chosen out of the rest and injected directly into each egg) takes place to select the most viable sperms. The process of bringing the baby into the world is very convenient and is done at the push of a button. After removing the amniotic fluid from the capsule, the parents will be able to easily take their baby out of the artificial uterus. A DNA test will be performed to confirm the genetic identity of the baby. Having the baby in the lab is not the only option. Those parents who want to see their baby every day can install such a capsule right in their apartment.
Looking at the development of this technology from the other side, it will not seem as rosy as we would like it to be. We cannot predict whether children raised in such a device will be like us. Would it be ethically correct to raise a child outside the womb of a biological mother? Would we stray even further from our natural beginnings? We will only learn the answers to these questions by learning more about this topic. But with great knowledge comes great danger. Using the capsules for purposes other than the benefit of humanity is also a great danger. It can be used for selfish purposes: growing armies of warriors, labor or other immoral needs. The only thing that can be said with certainty is that it is high time we start thinking about restrictions on the use of such resources. The creation of laws that will regulate this area of science will give great impetus to the development of new systems.
IVF will help people who want to have children but can’t. ECTOLIFE is a solution for women who have already been pregnant and don’t want to repeat the experience but want a baby. We must not forget that we still have global problems before us that need to be addressed immediately. By finding new opportunities to solve them, we risk nothing, unlike inaction. To avoid global catastrophes, it is necessary to act now. To maintain the necessary population and healthy relations between people – everyone should have the right to choose and the ability to manage their own lives independently.
