What is IVF?
According to The International Glossary on Infertility and Fertility Care, Fertility and Sterility, IVF is a sequence of procedures that involves extracorporeal fertilization of gametes. It includes conventional in vitro insemination and ICSI.
How does IVF work?
IVF is a treatment with over 40 years of experience, it’s a safe procedure and has helped many couples to have their babies.
IVF can help patients with fallopian tube conditions, with irregular periods, with male infertility, patients who have tried artificial insemination on several occasions without success, in cases where is a risk transmitting genetic or chromosomal abnormalities to their children, in cases of endometriosis, of unexplained infertility and low ovarian reserve.
An IVF treatment needs a really tailor-made plan. The fertility expert will review your medical and fertility history and investigate every possible infertility factor. After the needed fertility tests, the doctor will plan your own tailored treatment protocol and will monitor the treatment.
For an IVF treatment the doctor collects mature oocytes following ovarian stimulation medication (usually injectable). The oocytes are fertilized by the sperm in the lab (sperm from the male partner or donor). The embryologists monitor the fertilized eggs 24/7 in the Embryoscope+ incubator with timelapse technology until the day of embryotransfer.
The fertilized eggs, now called embryos, are cultured in appropriate culture media and are transferred back to the woman's uterus 2-5 days after egg collection.
IVF process- 3 stages of IVF
Stage 1: ovarian stimulation
During the first stage of the IVF cycle, medication for ovarian stimulation and oocyte production is administered to the patient. A sufficient number of good quality oocytes are required, so as to maximize IVF success rates. Ideally, 8 – 12 oocytes should be collected at oocyte retrieval.
Stage 2: egg retrieval and fertilization
Next step is fertilization of the oocytes in the laboratory. Fertilization is carried out by embryologists using the male partner’s sperm sample or donor sperm. Fertilized oocytes are cultured in appropriate culture media and grown into embryos.
Stage 3: embryo transfer
After 2-5 days, the embryos are transferred back into the woman’s uterus (embryo transfer) and 14 days after oocyte retrieval, a pregnancy test is carried out in order to find out whether a pregnancy has been achieved.
The purpose of the process is to obtain high quality embryos to increase the likelihood of achieving pregnancy. You can review the 3 steps of IVF in the image below.
