Design: The literature on intrauterine insemination, IVF, ICSI, MESA/TESE, preimplantation ge- netic diagnosis, cryopreservation, in vitro maturation, cloning and stem cells. Setting: Assisted Reproduction Centre, Ist Medical Faculty of Charles University Prague and General Hospital Prague, Apolinářská 18, 128 00, Prague 2, Czech Republic. Results: IUI, IVF, ICSI also in combination with MESA/TESE are widely used relatively high effective procedures. According to Czech Republic Assisted Reproduction Registry, the pregnan- cy rate per transfer using IVF, ICSI is 25%, 30% respectively. Cryopreservation of sperm and embryos is a basic part of assisted reproduction, the resulst with oocytes freezing are still not satisfactory. Preimplantation genetic diagnosis is performed in few countries only due to techni- cal barriers and ethical restrictions. Other methods like cloning, nuclear transfer, embryotherapy or gene manipulation using embryonic stem cells are still only subjects of research. Conclusion: During the last ten years, assisted reproduction showed rapid development in a num- ber of treated couples and the spectrum of used methods changed radically.

        Key words: assisted reproduction methods, IVF, ICSI, MESA/TESE, cryopreservation, cloning, em- bryotherapy, embryonic stem cells