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			Concern Treatment Pregnancy Experiences Concern Evaluating Your Fertility Understanding Fertility The Basics of Life DNA Cell Division Sexual Differentiation Anatomy & Function Ovulation Sperm Production Importance of Hormones Maximise Your Fertility Infertility: An Introduction Infertility in Females Infertility in Males Implications of Infertility Questions to Ask Your Doctor		DNA DNA is the genetic blueprint or code that defines what and, to a certain extent, who you are. DNA is twisted into the corkscrew spirals that contain the coded instructions for building every single part of your body.  The acronym “DNA” is short for deoxyribonucleic acid, a molecule with an extraordinary structure. It is a polymer or long molecule created by the joining together of many smaller repeating units in a seemingly endless series. The simplest way to visualize DNA is to imagine a tall ladder. The uprights of the ladder are formed from molecules containing sugar, oxygen, and phosphorus. Each rung of the ladder contains a separate pair of molecules known as bases. Now imagine twisting the ladder along its length. Twisting causes the uprights to spiral round each other into a characteristic shape known as the double helix. The bases that form the rungs of the ladder come in four different types known as cytosine, adenine, thymine, and guanine. A key feature of the bases is that only two pairings are permissible: C with G, and A with T. If the left half of a rung is a C, the right half must be a G. While four bases might not seem much, there can be a limitless variety of coded messages from random strings of letters.  In reality the order of those bases is far from random; it defines you precisely. That string of Cs, As, Ts, and Gs contains all the information needed to create and maintain you. DNA in hormone treatments    Up until the early 1980s, infertility hormones were only extracted and purified from the urine of postmenopausal women. While many thousands of couples successfully use hormones made this way, this process involves the extraction and purification of large amounts of urine from thousands of individual donors and is a time consuming process. In the early 80s, scientists successfully produced hormones by a process involving DNA, where genes are transferred from one cell to another.  This means that a cell could be re-programmed to secrete a particular protein, for example, growth hormone, by introducing the gene coding for growth hormone, although it had not initially been programmed to do so.  These modified cells - now called recombinant cells - transmit new characteristics to their descendants. When put into cell culture, the cell multiplies itself and the colony of daughter cells that arises secretes the desired protein. This new technique opened the door to an array of applications in the medical field. It became possible to produce much purer molecules than before, in guaranteed quantities without relying on raw materials such as urine.
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