In Vitro fertilization is the proper medical name for what the press dubbed ‘test tube babies’ many years ago. Eggs are removed from the ovaries and fertilized with sperm in a laboratory dish before being placed in the woman’s womb. In Vitro Fertilization may be recommended for a number of reasons including; age, other techniques have failed, the woman’s tubes are blocked or the infertility cannot be explained.

Whilst every clinic works slightly differently, the main procedure is a fairly routine one. 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. The reason for this is so the physician has improved control over when your eggs are produced. To ensure you ovaries produce more than a single egg, further drugs are given.

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Estrogen levels produced by the eggs are monitored to ensure they rise, using vaginal ultrasound scans and blood tests. Another hormone injection will be given when the tests show the time is right to help the eggs mature. The eggs are collected between 34 and 38 hours after the injection is given so the timing for it is crucial. Eggs are usually collected by ultrasound guidance which takes around 30 minutes and you are either given a drug to make you drowsy or a general anesthetic.

It’s about this time that the man must produce some fresh sperm. To make sure that the best sperm are used for the process, the sample is washed and then spun at high speed, this will give the healthiest and the most active sperm. With donated sperm, the process is the same but the sample is taken from the freezer. Once that has been completed the sperm is mixed with the eggs in a dish and left for between 16 to 20 hours and then checked to see if they have been fertilized. 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.

In order to help prepare your womb, pessaries, gel or an injection are given two days after your eggs have been collected.

IVF Retrieval

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