Patrick Steptoe | |
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| Born | Patrick Christopher Steptoe (1913-06-09)9 June 1913 Oxford, England |
| Died | 21 March 1988(1988-03-21) (aged 74) Canterbury, England |
| Alma mater | |
| Known for | In vitro fertilisation |
| Spouse | [2] |
| Children | 2, includingAndrew Steptoe[2] |
| Awards | |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | |
| Institutions | |
Patrick Christopher SteptoeCBEFRS[1] (9 June 1913 – 21 March 1988) was an Englishobstetrician andgynaecologist and a pioneer offertility treatment. Steptoe was responsible with biologist and physiologistRobert Edwards and the nurse and embryologistJean Purdy for developingin vitro fertilisation.Louise Joy Brown, the firsttest-tube baby, was born on 25 July 1978.[3][4] Edwards was awarded the 2010Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on the development of in vitro fertilisation; Steptoe and Purdy were not eligible for consideration because the Nobel Prize is not awarded posthumously.[5]
Patrick Christopher Steptoe was born on 19 June 1913.[6] Born inOxford, Steptoe was educated at The Grammar School,Witney (since 1968 the comprehensiveHenry Box School) inOxfordshire. He went toKing's College London and graduated fromSt George's Hospital Medical School,London in 1939. He served in the Royal Navy from 1939–1946 and attained the rank of Lieutenant Commander.
From 1947 to 1949 he was chief assistant in obstetrics and gynaecology atSt. George's Hospital, then senior registrar at theWhittington Hospital (formerly known as Highgate Hospital) and obtained hisFRCS(Ed) in 1950. His chief at Highgate, Kathleen Harding, was credited by Steptoe as teaching him a great deal about the management of infertility.
After theSecond World War, he studiedobstetrics and, in 1951 he started to work at theOldham & District General Hospital. FromRaoul Palmer he learned the technique oflaparoscopy and promoted its usefulness. In 1967 he publishedLaparoscopy in Gynaecology. Subsequently,Robert Edwards, a physiologist from theUniversity of Cambridge, contacted him and got him interested in collaborating in the development ofin vitro fertilization.[7]
Steptoe became the Director of the Centre for Human Reproduction,Oldham, in 1969. Using laparoscopy, he collected theova from volunteering infertile women who saw his place as their last hope to achieve a pregnancy. Edwards andJean Purdy provided the laboratory expertise. During this time they had to endure criticism and hostility to their work. Finally, in 1978, the birth of Louise Brown changed everything. Although he encountered further criticism, other clinics were able to follow the lead and patients responded. To accommodate the increased patient number and train specialists, he, Purdy, and Edwards founded theBourn Hall Clinic,Cambridgeshire in 1980 of which Steptoe was a Medical Director until his death.[8][9]
In 1979, Steptoe received the Golden Plate Award of theAmerican Academy of Achievement.[10]
In the1988 New Year Honours, he was appointedCommander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE), just a week after the 1,000th test-tube baby, conceived with his help, was born.[11]
Steptoe was elected aFellow of the Royal Society in March 1987.[1] His nomination reads:
Steptoe was the first in Britain to use laparoscopy for the routine diagnosis of gynaecological disorders, and the first anywhere to use it as a standard technique for sterilization. He sought to develop it for the treatment of infertility and, by 1969, succeeded in using it for the first time to recoveroocytes from preovulatory ovaries. During the next ten years he recovered many oocytes, which were fertilized and nurtured by Edwards, and implanted them in theuterus through thecervix uteri, thus helping to clarify many fundamental aspects of humanovulation,fertilization, and implantation. After more than 100 attempts a pregnancy was obtained which was carried to term. Now the technique, as used by Steptoe and others, is so successful that almost a third of women accepted for treatment have healthy infants. His achievement is particularly remarkable as it was obtained in a district hospital with only local backing.[12]
A plaque was unveiled at the Bourn Hall Clinic in July 2013 byLouise Brown and Alastair MacDonald – the world's first IVF baby boy – commemorating Steptoe and Edwards.[13][14] Steptoe is also commemorated with a plaque at the Maternity Ward at the Royal Oldham Hospital,[15] and at 52 West End, Witney.[16]
Steptoe is buried in Bourn, St Helena and St Mary Churchyard.
Steptoe, Edwards, and Purdy work was dramatised in Gareth Farr's 2024 playA Child of Science, which premiered atBristol Old Vic; Steptoe was portrayed byJamie Glover.[17]
In the 2024 biographical filmJoy, Steptoe is portrayed byBill Nighy.[18]
The birth of the world's first "test tube baby" has been announced in Manchester (England). Louise Brown was born shortly before midnight in Oldham and District General Hospital
The 28-year-old, whose pioneering conception by in-vitro fertilisation made her famous around the world. The fertility specialists Patrick Steptoe andBob Edwards became the first to successfully carry out IVF by extracting an egg, impregnating it with sperm and planting the resulting embryo back into the mother
