Louise Brown, the 1st IVF Baby, at ASRM Annual Meeting

A Jeopardy answer, an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records, the first “test-tube baby”—Louise Joy Brown has been a household name for decades.

From Bristol, England, Brown was born in 1978 to Lesley and John Brown who tried to conceive for nine years before becoming the first to successfully undergo in vitro fertilization (IVF).

“There aren’t many people that can say they were world famous within hours of being born,” said Brown. Conducting interviews and appearing on countless television programs, Brown’s parents took her around the world before she was two—but they soon took their daughter out of the spotlight, seeking a normal life for her.¹

After her parents died, Brown wrote a book in their honor. My Life as the World’s First Test-Tube Baby was published in 2015.¹ This fall, Brown appeared at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) annual meeting in conversation with ASRM President Richard Paulson, MD. It was the 40^th anniversary of the groundbreaking medical procedures that would lead to her birth.

For years, Brown’s existence has provided a ray of hope for childless couples. Since her birth, a million babies have been born through IVF in the United States. 10,000 of those babies, 1 percent of the national total, originated at Pacific Fertility Center.² That is quite an ongoing legacy.

Sources

1. Brown, L. My Life as the World’s First Test-Tube Baby. Bristol, England: Bristol Books, 2015.
2. USNews: “A Million Babies Have Been Born in the U.S. With Fertility Help” Available at: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/million-babies-have-been-born-u-s-fertility-help-n752506. Accessed 11-17-17.

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