If you have been trying to conceive for a year or longer, you may be looking at IVF, or In Vitro Fertilization, at some point in the future.
Almost everyone has heard of IVF, but how does it really work?
In preparation for In Vitro Fertilization, a woman will begin a regimen to induce ovulation if she has viable eggs. This involves being given high doses of hormones to step up egg production from the regular one egg a month to several eggs a month.
The woman’s fertility will be checked frequently through transvaginal ultrasounds and blood tests.
When the eggs have matured and ripened, the women will then undergo a minor surgical procedure under light sedation to harvest the ripe eggs from outside the ovaries.
If her partner is to be the sperm donor, he might be put on a diet to boost sperm production. If a sperm donor is in the works, this is when the process of choosing a donor begins.
Once the sperm and eggs have been collected, they are mixed together and placed into incubators.
This is called insemination. If the chances of fertilization are believed to be low, the sperm may be injected directly into the egg instead of being mixed together.
The eggs will be monitored to check for changes that indicate the eggs are fertilized and an embryo has formed.
After the embryos have formed, they are placed into the woman’s body by suspending them in liquid and injecting through the cervix into the uterus. Now the embryos may implant in the uterus and begin to grow.
In order to better the odds of implantation taking place, women are placed on pregnancy hormones for a period of eight to fourteen weeks after the embryos have been transferred into the uterus.
If the embryos fail to implant, they will be shed naturally.
Should the embryos fail to implant, it will be time to plan another round of fertilization treatments if so desired.
In Vitro Fertilization isn’t a guarantee of pregnancy.
For women under the age of 35, the success rate is approximately 43%. If a woman is over the age of 40, her chances of conceiving drop to about 13%.
Many couples undergo several rounds of treatment before pregnancy takes place.
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