IVF – Information & Advice
In vitro fertilization (IVF) is a process of assisted reproduction that provides couples who are infertile an opportunity to have a baby who is biologically related to them. Over 200,000 babies have been brought into the world as a result of using the IVF procedure and it is now recognized worldwide as an established way of treating infertility.
With IVF, a woman’s egg and a man’s sperm are combined by an IVF specialist in a laboratory dish. The resulting embryo is then put into the uterus (womb) of the woman and left to naturally develop. Usually, 3 or 4 embryos are placed in the uterus each time. Each attempt is referred to as a cycle, with the cost of each cycle being around ten thousands dollars.
Here are some more details of what exactly is involved in each cycle…
The woman may be administered hormones in order to stimulate her ovaries to produce a number (5+) eggs. A surgeon will then insert a needle into the woman’s ovary to take out the eggs. General anesthesia is not required for this part of the procedure, though the woman is sometimes given some sedating medication. At the same time, a semen sample is taken from the man. He will be asked not to have sex for half a week prior to the eggs being retrieved from the woman. The next step is for the sperm to be separated from the semen, which is done through a laboratory procedure.
Following this, the sperm are combined in a laboratory dish with the eggs taken from the woman. Around 18 hours after this has been done, the laboratory dish is examined to find out if the egg or eggs have been fertilized and if embryos have grown as a result. Should this have happened, they are incubated and observed for the next 2-5 days. After that time, the embryos will be transferred into the woman’s uterus through the cervix with a catheter (a long slender tube). She is then given certain hormones for the next 10-14 days. If the implantation works (the egg or eggs attach to the uterine wall and grow), a standard pregnancy test will give a positive result.
Read On : IVF Procedure
