Test tube babies, as they are commonly known, are created using IVF or In Vitro Fertilization which literally means fertilization in glass. The process involves sperm from a woman’s partner or a donor being placed in a dish with eggs that have been removed from her ovaries and fertilizing them before being placed in her womb. Women who use In Vitro Fertilization are often recommended this method when others have failed or because they are older.

The In Vitro Fertilization process should go something like the method set out below but may differ slightly between clinics. The first thing your doctor will do is to stop the hormones released by the pituitary gland during your period by the use of other drugs. This will help them have improved control as to when your eggs will be produced. To ensure you ovaries produce more than a single egg, further drugs are given.

IVF Procedures...

Vaginal ultrasound scans are carried out to monitor your developing eggs along with blood tests to chart the rising levels of estrogen produced by the eggs. Another hormone injection will be given when the tests show the time is right to help the eggs mature. Timing is crucial, as you must have this injection 34-38 hours before your eggs are collected - this may mean you having it last thing at night. Ultrasound guidance is used to help collect the egg but it means you have to be given drugs or a general anesthetic to help you relax because it takes about 30 minutes.

Next the man must produce some fresh sperm at about the same time as the eggs are collected. After a short storage period the sperm are washed and spun at high speed to enable the most active and healthiest to be chosen. For a woman using donated sperm, the same process is used once the sperm has been taken from the freezer. After the eggs and sperm have been collected they are left to mix in a laboratory dish for between 16 and 20 hours and then inspected to see whether fertilization has taken place. Any that haven’t, or any that have fertilized abnormally, are discarded and the remaining embryos are then left for another 24-48 hours before being checked again.

Two days after your eggs have been collected; you are given an injection, gel or pessaries to help prepare the lining of your womb.

IVF Procedures

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