NOVA Online | 18 Ways to Make a Baby

In ICSI, a single sperm is injected into the mother's egg.

Glossary
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Artificial insemination: Introducing semen into the uterus or oviduct by other than natural means.

Cloning: Taking body (i.e., non-sex) cells from an adult and introducing them into an unfertilized egg that has had its genetic material removed, and then encouraging embryo development.

Cytoplasm: The complex of organic and inorganic substances within a cell outside of the nucleus.

Cytoplasmic transfer: A technique in which cytoplasm from a donor egg is drawn into a pipette containing a single sperm from the male partner, after which that donated cytoplasm and the sperm are injected into the patient's egg.

Frozen embryos: Specialists may freeze additional embryos from a woman's cycle for later use. They may also freeze embryos of a donor in order to have them ready to place in a surrogate mother's uterus at the appropriate moment in the surrogate's natural or hormone-replaced cycle.

Intra-Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection, or ICSI ("ick-see"): A technique developed in 1992 to combat male infertility in which doctors collect a single live sperm and inject it directly into the cytoplasm of the mother's egg.

In vitro fertilization: Taking eggs from a woman, fertilizing them in the laboratory with a man's sperm, and returning the resulting embryos to her uterus several days later.

Nuclear transfer

Nuclear transfer: In his still-experimental technique, Dr. Jamie Grifo of New York University Medical Center takes the nucleus of an immature egg (i.e., one that hasn't gone through cell division) from the mother-to-be and places it in the enucleated (nucleus-free) egg donated by a young woman. Grifo's hope is that the technique, when perfected, will help older women whose eggs are less than ideal have babies using a younger person's eggs.

Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis, or PGD: A technique for screening embryos prior to implantation for genetic abnormalities. Only embryos free of such abormalities are implanted.

Surrogate: A surrogate mother is one who, usually by artificial insemination or by introduction of a fertilized egg (hers or that of a donor or the mother who will raise the child) into her uterus, becomes pregnant and carries a baby to term for another woman.

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