Five million births, thanks to in vitro fertilization

CLEVELAND - It's a technology that's helped millions of couples have children. Now, in vitro fertilization, or IVF, has reached a major milestone.

Fertility experts said five million children have been born, thanks to the medical reproductive assistance. The announcement came earlier this week at an international convention of fertility doctors and researchers.

The first so-called "test tube baby" was born in 1978.

IVF is a procedure where a woman's eggs are fertilized outside her body, in a laboratory, and reinserted into the birth mother's uterus.

It's not cheap. The National Institutes of Health estimates IVF can cost between $12,000 and $17,000.