Jean Marian Purdy
Jean Purdy (March 1945 - 16 March 1985) was one of the British trio who introduced in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) to the world. Working alongside English physiologist Sir Robert Edwards and gynaecologist Patrick Steptoe, she was the world’s first clinical embryologist and IVF nurse - which led to the birth of Louise Brown on 25 July 1978.
Education and early career[edit]
Jean Marian Purdy was born in Cambridge to George, a technician in the University of Cambridge Chemistry Department, and Gladys, a stay-at-home mum. Jean was a popular and conscientious student at the Cambridgeshire High School for Girls between 1956 and 1963 where she became a prefect, joined sports teams and played violin in the orchestra.
Work with Edwards and Steptoe[edit]
After qualifying to become a nurse in 1966, Jean got her first job was at the Chest Hospital in Southampton, but she was homesick and soon transferred to the Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridgeshire.
In 1968, at the age of 23, she applied for a post with Robert (Bob) Edwards at the Physiological Laboratory in Cambridge as a research assistant. Edwards had recently started a collaboration with Patrick Steptoe, who had introduced laparoscopy to the UK – the forerunner of keyhole surgery.
At the time very little was known about human embryos but, using laparoscopy, the trio wanted to bypass blocked Fallopian tubes so that patients could conceive with their own gametes using IVF - a technique that had only worked thus far in rabbits and rodents. The notion of collecting live eggs through laparoscopy was met with widespread controversy and condemnation.[1]
It took ten more years of striving and over a hundred round trips between Cambridge and Steptoe's practice in Oldham before the first IVF baby would be born.
Embryology hardly figured in the nursing curriculum Jean had studied, but her qualification provided her with an invaluable grounding in reproductive physiology and anatomy. Working with Edwards and Steptoe, Jean’s role went beyond that of a standard research assistant; she managed the laboratory supplies, prepared culture media, she helped to monitor eggs and embryos, and recorded data. In those pre-computer days, Jean pioneered total quality management: instinctively capturing all of the data and studying it by hand.
According to Jean’s obituary (The Times, 19 March 19 1985[2]), she was the first person in the world to recognise and describe the formation of the early human blastocyst, a foundational stage for embryo stem cell technology.
Some years later when the IVF programme switched to collecting single oocytes during natural cycles, Jean got up every few hours in the night to rouse patients for urine samples, which were needed to monitor luteinizing hormone surges.
The first IVF baby, Louise Brown, was delivered on 25 July 1978. Despite this success, the trio were unable to secure NHS funding to support roll-out of the service and the team made urgent attempts to fund a private clinic close to Cambridge where they could work together. Jean eventually found a Jacobean manor house for sale — this became the world’s first IVF clinic, Bourn Hall. In 1980, she helped to launch fertility services as the Technical Director of Bourn Hall Clinic.
Between 1970-1985, Jean co-authored 26 academic papers[3][4][5] about IVF which appeared in Nature and The Lancet[6] amongst other journals.
Over the years, Edwards and Steptoe often highlighted Purdy's role, including in their book A Matter of Life: The Story of IVF - a medical breakthrough[7] and, at a plenary lecture celebrating the 20th anniversary of IVF in Marrakesh, where Edwards said: 'There were three original pioneers in IVF and not just two'.[8]
A blue plaque dedicated to Edwards, Steptoe and Purdy was unveiled on the 19 March 2015 at Dr Kershaw’s Hospice, where the three established their laboratory in 1971.
Personal life[edit]
Some say that Jean regarded IVF as a calling, to help people have the children that nature denied. If she ever harboured dreams of marrying and building her own family, there was never time to fulfil them.
Her premature death from malignant melanoma on 16 March 1985, aged just 39, meant that she never witnessed the continued development of assisted reproductive technologies for patients around the world.
Jean is buried beside her mother and grandmother in the Church of St. Andrew & St. Mary, Grantchester, just outside Cambridge; where Louise Brown, the world’s first test tube baby, unveiled a memorial to Jean on 20 July 2018.
References[edit]
- ↑ Ward, Victoria (2015-07-24). "Louise Brown, the first IVF baby, reveals family was bombarded with hate mail". ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2018-07-12.
- ↑ Obit, 1985. Miss Jean Purdy. The Times, Tuesday March 19th issue 62090; p. 16, column G.
- ↑ Fishel, S. B.; Edwards, R. G.; Purdy, J. M.; Steptoe, P. C.; Webster, J.; Walters, E.; Cohen, J.; Fehilly, C.; Hewitt, J. (September 1985). "Implantation, abortion, and birth after in vitro fertilization using the natural menstrual cycle or follicular stimulation with clomiphene citrate and human menopausal gonadotropin". Journal of in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer: IVF. 2 (3): 123–131. ISSN 0740-7769. PMID 3932567.
- ↑ "In vitro fertilization: a treatment for male infertility". Fertility and Sterility. 43 (3): 422–432. 1985-03-01. doi:10.1016/S0015-0282(16)48443-8. ISSN 0015-0282.
- ↑ Edwards, R.G., Steptoe, P.C., Purdy, J.M. (1980). "Establishing full term human pregnancies using cleaving embryos grown in vitro". British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. 87: 737–756.CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
- ↑ Edwards, R.G., Steptoe, P.C., Abraham, G.E., Walters, E., Purdy, 748 J.M., Fotherby, K. (1972). "Steroid assays and preovulatory follicular development in human ovaries primed with gonadotrophins". Lancet. ii: 611–615.CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
- ↑ Edwards, R., Steptoe, P. (1980). A Matter of Life. London: Hutchinson. ISBN 978-1-908374-48-6.CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link) Search this book on
- ↑ Gosden, Roger (2017-09-07). "Jean Marian Purdy remembered – the hidden life of an IVF pioneer". Human Fertility. 21 (2): 86–89. doi:10.1080/14647273.2017.1351042. ISSN 1464-7273.
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