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In S09E22, "The One with the Donor", we see Monica and Chandler go to the doctor where they find out their best options for conceiving are surrogacy, insemination and adoption.

I'm not the most knowledgeable about all these conceiving techniques, but wouldn't it have been an option for them to have an embryo created in vitro with Chandler's sperm and Monica's eggs and implanted in Monica's uterus?

We know she could get pregnant, because otherwise insemination wouldn't have been an option.

We also know that Chandler's problem is that his sperm has low motility, but I don't think that would come in the way of an in vitro conception

to recap, why didn't they consider in vitro fertilization?

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    Not sure but maybe it didn't exist then?
    – caird coinheringaahing
    May 19, 2017 at 13:54
  • @Satan'sSon ... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_Brown
    – iandotkelly ♦
    May 19, 2017 at 14:44
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    You know how much more expensive, and less comedic, in vitro methods are?
    – PoloHoleSet
    May 19, 2017 at 16:14
  • @Satan'sSon - It existed then. It was (and probably still is) really really expensive though. In the early 90's I worked with a woman who had used up her entire lifetime healthcare cap (remember those bad old days?) with the company plan trying IVF and fertility treatments.
    – T.E.D.
    May 19, 2017 at 18:34
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    @Satan'sSon -- obviously you didn't see "The One with the Embryos", an episode of Friends that aired six years earlier.
    – Michael Lorton
    May 19, 2017 at 20:02

2 Answers 2

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No in-universe reason is given, but if the producers considered it at all, they might have discarded it for one or both of two reasons:

  1. the show already had an IVF arc -- Phoebe bearing children for her brother. Indeed, it also had a pregnancy arc (the gestation and birth of Emma), so they were running low on new ways to produce babies.
  2. the show was in its last season. If they wanted to end with "the start of a new beginning", IVF, and ordinary conception, would have taken an unreasonable amount of screen time to seem plausible without an awkward time-skip.
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In Season 9 Episode 21, The One With the Fertility Test, Chandler tells Monica that his sperm has low motility and that she has an inhospitable environment. I think that's the reason why they don´t consider in vitro fertilization. This is the scene:

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    thanks for the answer, However I don't think this scene can rule out in-vitro. It's implied that Monica's environment is inhospitable to Chandler's sperm, not necessarilty an embryo
    – Traceur
    May 14, 2018 at 15:43

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