There are many couples who face fertility issues that prevent them from becoming parents. There are many medical procedures through which they can become parents and IVF is one of them.
In vitro fertilization treatment is the process in which an egg from a woman’s body is taken out and kept into a container where then the man’s sperm is inseminated into it. It is left there for a few days and then the embryo is surgically placed back inside the woman’s body. This process has allowed many people struggling with infertility to have a child.
Let’s have a closer look at what are different procedures or steps in a single IVF cycle:
- OVULATION ANALYSIS: The first step of the IVF cycle is that your fertility specialist will do a thorough analysis of your ovulation cycle. When do you ovulate the most and what is the difference between each cycle. Your ovaries will be monitored so that the doctor can evaluate the timing of your egg release. Different tests will ensure that whether your hormone level is normal or not or if your ovaries are properly releasing eggs.
- OVARIES STIMULATION: After the analysis is done, your doctor will then give you medicines to stimulate your ovaries to produce more eggs, hence increasing your chances at pregnancy.
- RETRIEVAL OF THE EGG: You will be either given painkillers or mild anesthesia for this process as this involves surgical removal of your eggs. Needles are used to remove the fluid in the follicles inside your ovaries. This fluid contains the eggs which cannot be seen from naked eyes. Hence the liquid is collected first and then the egg is extracted from the fluid. This egg is then placed in a container and kept into the incubator.
- FERTILIZATION: The next step is to inseminate the egg with the sperm. The most active sperm from the sample of your partner or a donor is injected into the egg in a special container. In most cases though, the sperm is placed within the same container with the egg, so that they both can find each other naturally, just like it happens in the body.
- DEVELOPMENT OF THE EMBRYO: After the sperm found the egg, the embryo starts to get developed. The developing embryo is then placed in a special kind of incubator where the growth of the embryo is monitored closely. The embryo is left alone for a few days so that it can grow healthy and its growth can be monitored.
- EMBRYO TRANSFER: Once it is decided that the embryo is growing and healthy, it is ready to be placed back into the uterus. You will not need any painkiller or anesthesia this time as this is a very small process. The embryo is placed in the cervix which is the lower most part of the uterus, using a small tube. This process needs to be done with great care so as no harm is caused to the embryo while transferring from the incubator to the uterus. This is a five-minute process and does not require lots of time.
After all these steps, the women may take a pregnancy test to be sure; however, a blood test is done by the doctor after the embryo is placed in the woman’s body. So these are the basic steps of an IVF cycle. Please feel free to mail us if you have any other questions or doubts regarding IVF.