There he studied methods of sterilization and the problems of infertility.
Steptoe perfected the technique for retrieving eggs from a woman's ovary using a laparoscope. A small incision was made, and this narrow tube, with a built-in optical fiber light, was inserted into the abdominal cavity. The laparoscope was used for sterilization procedures as well as for diagnostic reasons. It was considered to be a pioneering device at the time, and more than a few colleagues questioned his use of it.
Collaborated with Robert Edwards
In 1966, Steptoe joined forces with Robert Edwards, a Cambridge University physiologist. Edwards had developed a technique for fertilizing human eggs in the laboratory, in an effort to help women with defective fallopian tubes become pregnant. Steptoe realized that he could use a laparoscope to extract eggs from infertile women. If the eggs were retrieved at the right time and then fertilized in the laboratory (in vitro), they could then be implanted into the uterus and a pregnancy could result.
As Steptoe and Edwards wrote in an account of their collaborative effort, A Matter of Life, they received a devastating blow in April 1971, when the Medical Research Council denied their application for funds. They were repeatedly denied funds for their research until the Ford Foundation and some wealthy Americans provided the money."
In 1972, Steptoe and Edwards attempted the first implantation, but the inserted embryo failed to lodge properly in the uterus.
This is a free page. This page contains 200 words. This
biography contains 2,032 words (approx. 7 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Biography with our Patrick Steptoe Access Pass.
