IVF boom produces more than 3 million babies around world

Just before midnight on 26 July 1978, the world's first "test tube baby", Louise Brown, was born in Oldham and District General Hospital in Greater Manchester.

It was a medical breakthrough but sparked intense debate about the safety and morality of the procedure, and some doctors predicted that it was unlikely to be repeated. Yet a report published yesterday revealed that more than three million babies have been born worldwide as a result of fertility treatment since Louise's birth. Assisted reproductive technology (ART) has never been more successful - or more popular. More than 200,000 babies were born as a result of ART in 2002, according to research presented at the annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Prague.

In the 1980s, just 6 per cent of embryos that were implanted through in vitro fertilisation (IVF) resulted in a successful pregnancy; now almost one in five fertility treatment cycles leads to the birth of a baby. Europe leads the world in fertility treatment, accounting for 56 per cent of all ART cycles. The number of cycles performed in Europe rose by 10 per cent between 2002 and 2003. Last year, the 100,000th ART baby was born in Britain.

Dame Suzi Leather, chair of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, said: "It is deeply heartening to think of the amazing difference that this technology has made to people's lives and the terrific joy and happiness that those hundred thousand children have brought to their families."

One in seven British couples experiences problems conceiving and more than 20,000 women seek treatment each year.

Around 8,500 of the 640,000 babies born in the UK each year are ART-conceived and it is estimated that every primary school now has at least one "test-tube baby". Major scientific advances have contributed to the increasing success and use of fertility treatment. In 1992, the first baby was born as a result of intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), where a single sperm is injected directly into the egg.

ICSI was the first type of ART that could be used to treat male rather than female infertility and is now used in more than half of all procedures.

However the report also highlights how the lack of NHS funding for infertile couples means Britain lags behind the rest of Europe in accessing treatment. Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands carry out twice as many treatment cycles per million inhabitants as Britain. Denmark performs more than three times as many.

The UK performed just 633 cycles per million people in 2003, the most recent year for which figures are available. Under guidelines issued by Nice (the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence), infertile couples should receive three cycles of treatment on the NHS.

But budget problems mean that many trusts are not meeting these guidelines and some do not offer couples even one cycle. Germany, France and Israel all provide free treatment for at least three cycles.

Dr Jacques de Mouzon, a member of the International Committee for Monitoring Assisted Reproductive Technologies said: "There is a real inequality between the different countries and that is due to money."

Fertility treatments

* More than 200,000 babies worldwide were born as a result of ART (assisted reproductive technology) in 2002 compared with just 30,000 in 1989.

* One million cycles of treatment given globally each year.

* Success rates vary; in some countries 40 per cent of women have a baby following treatment in others less than 10 per cent.

* 37,000 cycles of treatment are given annuallyin Britain, resulting in 8,500 live births.

* A quarter of all ART pregnancies result in twins and 2.6 per cent are triplets.

* Denmark has highest proportion of ART births - 3.9 per cent of all babies born; in Britain it is just over 1 per cent.

* Israel provides the highest number of cycles: 3,263 per million of the population.