A person is infertile if they cannot have a baby naturally. One cause is that a woman's eggs do not mature or ovulation does not happen. A treatment is to give FSH and LH as fertility drugs. These hormones help eggs to mature and trigger ovulation, so the woman may then become pregnant naturally.
In IVF (in vitro fertilisation), FSH and LH are given to stimulate several eggs to mature. The eggs are collected from the ovaries and mixed with sperm in a laboratory dish. Fertilised eggs grow into embryos, and one or two embryos are put into the uterus. Progesterone may be given to help maintain the lining of the uterus.
To evaluate IVF, look at the benefits and the drawbacks. It gives a chance of a baby to couples who could not have one, but most cycles do not result in a baby. It can be stressful and expensive, and it may lead to multiple births, which carry higher risks for mother and babies.
The hormone hCG is made by an embryo after it implants in the uterus. In the past, urine from a woman was injected into a female Xenopus laevis frog. If the woman was pregnant, the hCG stimulated the frog to lay eggs. Modern pregnancy tests use antibodies on a test strip to detect hCG in urine.