Module 25
What you now know
The whole story in one page, the final assessment, and where to go next.
- 2lessons
- 8 minreading
- 0quiz questions
The lessons and the quiz in this module are part of the Fertility with Kara Package. Module 1 is free to read.
Your way through Module 25
Learning aims
By the end of this module you will be able to:
- Retell the whole story of human development, from egg and sperm to birth, in your own words.
- Connect what happens in the IVF laboratory to what happens in the body.
- Take the final assessment and print your certificate of completion.
- Find trustworthy places to keep learning, and know when to ask your own healthcare professional.
The module in brief
The module in brief
- A new life begins when one sperm fuses with a mature egg in the fallopian tube, forming a zygote with two pronuclei.
- Over about five days the zygote divides into a blastocyst, which hatches and implants in the lining of the womb.
- In weeks 2 and 3 after fertilisation the embryo becomes a disc of three germ layers, the starting material for every organ.
- Weeks 4 to 8 complete the embryonic period, when the heart begins to beat and every major organ is laid down.
- From week 9 the fetus mostly grows and matures, supported by the placenta, until birth.
- In IVF the laboratory recreates the first days: fertilisation, culture to the blastocyst stage, grading, freezing and transfer.