Revealed: The scientific breakthroughs that could allow same-sex couples to have their OWN biological children

Becoming a parent is something that many people dream of – but for gay couples, the reality can be complicated.

As it stands, same–sex partners must rely on a surrogate mother or father – but this means only one of the couple passes on their genes.

However, this could soon be about to change.

In a stunning breakthrough this week, scientists revealed they've been able to create human eggs from skin cells.

The technique opens the possibility for DNA from a man's skin cells being placed inside a donor egg, before being fertilised by another man.

In theory, this could allow two men to have a baby, without any DNA from a woman.

This is not the only cutting–edge advance in the last few years that could allow same–sex couples to have their own biological children – with other researchers looking at everything from lab–grown sperm and eggs to 'virgin births'.

So in mere decades, gay people could have a multitude of options to choose from on their journey to parenthood.

During heterosexual reproduction, genetic material carried by the sperm combines with genetic material from a female contained in the egg.

A biological baby to be born to a same–sex couple would of course have to have genetic material from both parents – from two sets of sperm, for example.

While this may sound like an impossibility, scientists in China have excitingly demonstrated that it is feasibly possible.

The experts managed to insert two sperm cells – one from each father – into a mouse egg whose nucleus had been removed.

A gene editing technique was then used to reprogram parts of the sperm DNA to allow an embryo to develop – a process called androgenesis.

The embryo (featuring the genetic material from two fathers) was transferred to a female womb and allowed to grow to term.

Finally, the resulting offspring managed to grow to adulthood and become a parent after mating conventionally with a female, suggesting that a baby born to two dads would be able live and breed as normal.

Although promising, experts caution that we are not ready to start such experiments in humans, which could be deeply unethical.

Christophe Galichet, research operations manager at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre in London, points out that the success rate of the experiments was very low.

Of 259 mice embryos that were transferred to female mice, just two survived, grew to adulthood and then fathered their own offspring.

Sperm cell insertion would theoretically allow two fathers to have a biological baby, but how about two mothers?

A hallmark experiment in Japan in 2004 created the first ever 'bimaternal' mouse using eggs from two female parents.

Experts at the Tokyo University of Agriculture managed the feat by genetically modifying eggs from a female mouse to make them act like sperm.

The resulting miracle mouse, named Kaguya, was the first mammal born from two genetic mothers.

However, ethical concerns and technological limitations pose barriers to duplicating the technique in people, the experts cautioned.

An exciting future scenario is where anyone, man or woman, could have their genetic material in an egg.

And earlier this week, scientists offered fresh hope that such an eventuality could soon be possible.

The experts at Oregon Health & Science University revealed that they'd used human skin cells to create eggs ready for fertilisation.

The technique involves removing the nucleus from a woman's skin cell and inserting it into an egg from which the nucleus has been removed.

The breakthrough opens the possibility for DNA from a man's skin cells being placed inside a donor egg, before being fertilised by another man.

In theory, this could allow two men to have a baby, without any DNA from a woman.

While further research is needed to ensure safety and efficacy before clinical trials can go ahead, experts have described the news as a 'major advance'.

It sounds like something from a Mary Shelley novel, but some scientists think babies could be grown from scratch in a lab as soon as this decade.

They're pinning their hopes on in vitro gametogenesis (IVG), a new lab technology that's breaking the rules of reproduction.

IVG works by taking cells from a person's blood or skin and reprogramming them to become induced pluripotent stem cells.

In theory, pluripotent stem cells can become any cell in the body, including egg and sperm cells that could be used to make embryos and then implanted into women's wombs.

Scientists have been able to make very basic human eggs and sperm this way, but have not yet been able to make embryos.

One California–based startup called Conception is working on IVG to 'give families the opportunity to still have children at much older ages, eliminate barriers for couples suffering from infertility, and allow everyone to have biological children'.

Professor Katsuhiko Hayashi, a Japanese geneticist at the University of Osaka, expects the first viable lab–grown human sperm by about 2030.

It was nearly 20 years ago that scientists revealed they'd used human bone marrow to create early–stage sperm cells for the first time.

The experts from the UK and Germany took stem cells from the bone marrow – the soft, spongy tissue in the centres of bones – of male volunteers.

Usually, such samples would be developed into cells that form part of muscle tissue, but the team developed them into spermatogonial cells, which become mature sperm cells.

The 2007 achievement heralded the possibility of using 'artificial sperm', removing men from the process of creating life.

In theory, one member of a lesbian couple could used their bone marrow sample to grow sperm that could fertilize their partner's egg.

Scientists said their next goal was to get the spermatagonial stem cells to progress to mature sperm in the lab, although it's unclear if they're still working on this.

Their paper, published in the journal Reproduction: Gamete Biology, was redacted two years later due to claims of plagiarism.

In the animal kingdom, a seemingly miraculous phenomenon of Biblical proportions exists in nature that offers hope to millions of gay couples.

Known as parthenogenesis or virgin birth, it allows a baby to be born without any kind of sexual intercourse.

Parthenogenesis usually happens when the female has been isolated for a long time and has little hope of finding a male to mate with.

By this logic, women who are living alone should be able to get pregnant even if they are not having sexual intercourse with a man.

Virgin births have been observed in sharks, snakes, crocodiles, crustaceans, scorpions and wasps – but scientists say they might be possible in humans.

Dr Louise Gentle, lecturer in zoology at Nottingham Trent University, said parthenogenesis in humans is 'technically possible', but it would require humans with similar genetic tweaks or mutations to breed together.

'To get parthenogenesis in humans, you would need to have individuals with the same chance mutations (there would have to be many mutations) breeding together,' she said.

'It's an extremely long shot, with a tiny probability, but it is technically possible.'

Likewise, Tiago Campos Pereira, a professor of genetics at the University of São Paulo in Brazil, said there are 'biological barriers' established by our genetic makeup that prevents parthenogenesis in humans.

But this genetic makeup may be 'altered by natural mutations', he told the Daily Mail.

All babies born due to parthenogenesis are essentially 'identical' genetic clones of their mother right down to their sex, but long–term this could be disastrous for the survival of a certain species due to a lack of genetic diversity.

Lluís Montoliu, a biotechnologist based in Spain, said such procedures would 'revolutionize fertility treatments' if they were ever to successfully and safely produce human embryos.

He said such methods could potentially 'be optimised to the point where we can consider offering them in fertility clinics'.

'For the moment, these human applications remain in the realm of science fiction,' he said in a piece earlier this year for The Conversation.

'We must ask ourselves, as a society, whether we would be willing to ethically and legally accept these techniques.'