Jean Purdy worked with Patrick Steptoe and Robert Edwards from 1968. After their success with the first 'test-tube' baby Louise Brown, Jean looked for somewhere near Cambridge to establish the world's first IVF clinic. She found Bourn Hall, a derelict country house 20 minutes from Cambridge, and saw its potential as a clinic.
As IVF is 40 in 2018, we look back over the successes of the last four decades. Bourn Hall’s first Technical Director Jean Purdy helped turn IVF science into a robust medical treatment. Before her premature death in 1985, aged 39, Jean saw over 500 babies conceived following successful IVF. These were the first of over 20,000 Bourn Hall babies born so far.
In the 40 years since the breakthrough there have been other milestones:
1978 First IVF baby
1980 Bourn Hall Clinic opens
1982 Frozen sperm is used for IVF treatment
1985 Frozen embryos begin to be used in treatment
1986 IVF became an outpatient treatment
1986 Bourn Hall celebrates 1000 babies (2,000 worldwide)
1990 Introduction of treatment for men with spinal cord injury – surgical sperm retrieval (SSR)
1991 First surrogate treatment
1995 Introduction of ICSI treatment to overcome male infertility
2002 Egg sharing programme introduced
2003 25th Anniversary of birth of Louise – Bourn Hall Baby Party
2006 Sperm sharing programme introduced
2008 30th Anniversary celebrated at Bourn Hall
2009 NHS contract for East of England – implementation of NICE guidelines, offering three cycles of IVF, resulted in increased success rates through blastocyst culture
2010 New full service clinic opened in Colchester
2010 Nobel prize awarded to Professor Robert Edwards (not to Steptoe as he had sadly passed away in 1988)
2010 5 million IVF babies born worldwide
2010 Tea party to celebrate first 100 NHS babies born since NHS contract awarded.
2012 1000 NHS IVF babies born since 2009 – one baby a day since 2009
2012 MicroTESE introduced
2013 35 years of IVF celebrated with one baby from every year.
2013 New full service clinic opened in Norwich and a satellite in Wickford
2013 Introduction of 4D scanning
2013 First frozen egg baby born
2014 New satellite clinic opened in Peterborough
2014 EEVA time-lapse videography introduced
2015 Bourn Hall hosts launch of Louise Brown’s autobiography
2016 IVF gifting programme introduced which allows donors to give free IVF treatment to a friend or family member
2016 IMSI introduced to help select the best sperm
2017 New science laboratory opened for leading-edge research into egg development
2018 Launch of new Pre-implantation Genetic Screening (PGS) service
2018 Our new purpose-built full-service Wickford Clinic opens its doors
2018 As IVF is 40 in 2018 Bourn Hall celebrates with a memorial service for Jean Purdy – a Bourn Hall baby is now born every 8 hours
Our short video highlights some of the milestones, breakthroughs and important events over the last 40 years of IVF
More information
Bourn Hall has 40 years of experience of supporting those with infertility and our success rates are improving all the time. If you want to know more about how we can help you with any aspect of infertility do get in contact.
Alternatively you might want to attend one of our free fertility awareness events.
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