For some couples, conceiving can be quiet hard to achieve without the help of an assisted reproductive technology like IVF or In vitro fertilization. This article serves as a couple's guide to IVF treatment to help them understand more about the procedure, give them hope and make them believe that conceiving is still possible.
What is IVF?
In vitro fertilization is a procedure used for couples who had a hard time conceiving after a year of unprotected sex or after many attempts of infertility treatments. This procedure involves combining the sperm and egg outside the woman's body.
The following discussions will serve as guide to IVF treatment.
Qualified Candidates to Receive IVF Treatment
Couples who have infertility problems and those who have tried other infertility treatments but failed are highly qualified to undergo IVF treatment. These infertility problems include low sperm count, low sperm motility, blocked fallopian tubes, and endometriosis.
Guide to IVF treatment
This guide to IVF shows the basic procedures done during treatment.
- The first step starts with down regulation. Down regulation medications like Lupron stop the woman's natural ovulation cycle or it simply stops the ovaries from releasing the follicles. The main purpose of this step is to avoid any premature ovulation.
- Second step is stimulation. At this stage women are given stimulating drugs for at least 11 days to help them produce a lot more eggs. When follicles are ready to be collected, the woman will inject herself with HCG (a drug that helps mature and release eggs from the ovaries) and all other medications will be stopped.
- Third step is egg retrieval. The more eggs retrieved will help increase the chances of conceiving. During this time, the male partner will be asked to provide the sperm sample. After which, both the eggs and the sperm cells will be placed in a laboratory dish to promote fertilization.
- Once fertilization is achieved, the embryos will undergo embryo culture, the fourth step. Embryo culture takes 3-5 days.
- After embryo culture, the good-quality embryos will be returned back to the woman's uterus through a catheter. This fifth step is called the embryo transfer. After releasing the embryos to the uterus, the next steps that follow will depend whether the implantation is successful or not.
- The last step is the two-week wait for news whether the embryo has successfully implanted itself to the uterus or not. If yes, then pregnancy is confirmed. But if not, couples can still give it another try.
Confirmation of Pregnancy
At the end of the 2-week wait after implantation, women are asked to come back to the hospital for blood test to confirm the pregnancy. At times some women experience bleeding within this 2-week period and are advised to report to their doctors immediately as not all bleeding indicate miscarriage.
Success rate of an IVF treatment
Success rate of IVF treatment varies depending on the age of the woman and type of infertility problem. But usually, younger women aged 35 and below have higher chances of conceiving through IVF than women who are above 40 years old.
This is just a brief guide to IVF treatment to help couples understand the process and remain hopeful that having their own child is still within reach.