IVF or In Vitro fertilization is a process where sperm fertilizes the eggs in the dish in an IVF laboratory rather than in the fallopian tube of a woman. IVF involves aspirating eggs from the ovaries, then fertilizing them, and then the fertilized embryo is grown in the lab for 5 to 6 days and transferred back in the woman’s uterus through the help of an ultrasound-guided embryo transfer process.
If you are unable to get pregnant after a year of having sexual intercourse without using any form of birth control, it might be a good time to consult a fertility doctor. If you are 35 years or older then you should wait only 6 months, however, the best thing to do is go in for preconception counseling wherein you visit a fertility expert much before you even start trying to conceive so that most problems can be identified and rectified in time.
Success rates can vary widely, globally IVF success rate is somewhere around38-39 %., and the most important parameter to influence is the female age. women, more than 35 years of age might need repeated cycles of IVF for success.
Generally, an IVF procedure takes approximately 4-6 weeks, from the starting of medications to egg retrieval and embryo transfer.
You can opt for what’s called an elective single embryo transfer (eSET). means that only one embryo is transferred instead of two or three as has been common practice in the past. But with more and more clinics now switching to blastocyst transfer, only one or if the maternal age is above 35 we might transfer 2 embryos. This considerably reduces the chance of multiple births.
IVF is generally a very safe procedure and most who have it experience no problemsad such, However, there are some risks to be aware of, which include:
Women who are unable to conceive naturally, and have issues like blocked tubes, male infertility, endometriosis or unexplained infertility opt for the common treatment known as IVF. When a woman undergoes IVF, she is put on medicines (fertility hormones) to stimulate the ovaries to produce several eggs. The eggs are then collected and mixed with sperm in a laboratory.
A classical IVF is the mixing of the sperms with a few eggs in a dish in a laboratory, ICSI involves the injection of a single sperm directly into the cytoplasm of each egg. ICSI is a suitable approach for couples where the sperm parameters are not up to the mark.
According to a recent study, the routine use of ICSI does not improve fertilization and is not recommended in patients with non-male factor infertility. in patients with male infertility, ICSI is the choice of treatment and it shows better fertilization than IVF
In an IVF cycle, if more embryos are formed than needed, the remaining embryos are frozen and stored for future use, this procedure to preserve and store embryos is known as cryopreservation.
Yes, we can preserve a woman’s fertility by egg freezing, so she can try to have a family in the future. It involves collecting eggs by the process of egg retrieval and then freezing them. The eggs are then thawed when the woman is ready to go ahead with fertility treatment.
Egg freezing is an important fertility preservation method.
Earlier Egg freezing used to be a difficult process. The inferior “slow freezing” methods have subsequently been replaced by the superior “vitrification.”
Vitrification is a fabulous invention whereby embryos/eggs are frozen in a way that prevents ice crystals from forming and instead takes on a glass-like structure.
So, the survival rates have gone up to 80 %, but this is highly dependent on the embryologist’s technical abilities. Another factor that influences survival rates is age. Generally, women >35 have a lower egg thaw survival rate compared to women
<35, with a difference of about 20%.
The egg retrieval or ovum pick-up is a day procedure done under anesthesia, to ensure that you do not feel any pain and there is no discomfort whatsoever during the procedure.
Yes, Egg retrieval is done under anesthesia, you are sedated very lightly so that you don’t feel any pain.
Yes, egg retrieval is a vaginal ultrasound-guided procedure.
After egg retrieval, 24 hours of bed rest is recommended, then you can resume your normal life.
The semen should be provided not before an hour of egg retrieval, it is generally preferred that your partner come to the facility and provide sperm through ejaculation.
In special cases, you will be allowed to get the sample from home, but it is generally discouraged.
Each clinic uses its grading system to allow them to believe they are the best embryos. day 3 and day 5 embryos are graded separately. Day 3 embryos are graded generally 1-4. Whereas a blastocyst grade is presented by a number and 2 letters (A to C). The number suggests the stage of expansion and the letters relate to the cell mass. The first letter relates to the inner cell mass and the second relates to the trophectoderm cells.
After the embryo transfer you are generally advised to rest for some time, you may subsequently resume a normal life, this will not affect in any way your chances of successful implantation.
A maximum of 30 min rest is good enough before one leaves the IVF facility. After that, you can walk, climb stairs slowly. Vigorous exercise is best avoided.It doesn’t hamper your chances of implantation.
Injections can be of two types
Embryo glue is a hyaluronan-based culture media that is supposed to help the embryo stick to the uterus, Hyaliuran is a glycoprotein that provides a viscosity environment in the uterus. A Cochrane review has shown a moderate increase in live births.
Embryo donation is similar to egg donation. However, instead of borrowing the egg only hereboth the egg and the sperm are derived from donors. and then they are fertilized and embryos are formed .then these embryos are donated. couples are recruited for embryo donation when both the partners are infertile, and when couples are at risk of passing genetic disorders to their child
The quality ofan egg depends on 2 parts
