IVF is a medical way to start a pregnancy when sperm and egg have trouble meeting inside the body. Doctors take an egg from the woman (or from a donor) and add sperm in a lab dish. If the egg is fertilized — if it starts to grow as an embryo — they put it into the uterus. In vitro is Latin that doctors still use: it means “in glass,” because the meeting happens in a dish, not in the body. The F is fertilization. In ordinary talk people say “she’s trying IVF” or “they had a baby by IVF.” It can take more than one try, and it is expensive and hard on the body, so it is not a casual choice. It is not the same as simply placing sperm in the uterus (that is a different treatment).