Gynaecologist and reproduction biologist, born in Witney, Oxfordshire, SC England, UK. He studied at King's College, London, and St George's Hospital, and became senior obstetrician and gynaecologist in the Oldham Hospitals (1951) and medical director of the Bourn Hall Clinic, Cambridgeshire (1980). From 1968, with Robert Edwards (1925 ), he worked on the problem of in vitro fertilization of human embryos, which 10 years later resulted in the birth of a baby (Louise Brown) after implantation in her mother's uterus.
Patrick Christopher Steptoe (June 9, 1913, Witney, England - March 21, 1988, Canterbury) was a British obstetrician and gynaecologist and a pioneer of fertility treatment. Steptoe was responsible with biologist and physiologist Robert Edwards for developing in vitro fertilisation.
Education
Steptoe was educated at King's College London and graduated from St George's Hospital Medical School, London in 1939.
Laparoscopic Pioneer
After the second World War, he studied obstetrics and, in 1951 he started to work at the Oldham General Hospital. Subsequently, Robert Edwards, a physiologist from the University of Cambridge, contacted him and got him interested to collaborate in the development of in vitro fertilization.
Work with Edwards
Steptoe became the Director of the Centre for Human Reproduction, Oldham in 1969. To accommodate the increased patient number and train specialists, he and Edwards founded the Bourn Hall Clinic, Cambridgeshire in 1980 of which he was a Medical Director until his death.
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