What is actually IVF?
Hundreds of thousands of couples go through IVF around the world each year – Everyone has heard about it but what exactly is it?
IVF or In Vitro Fertilization is the process of taking an egg and sperm, and putting them together in a laboratory to fertilize into an embryo.
The embryo grows in ideal conditions in the lab and once it has reached a stage of development (generally 3-5 days), it is then inserted into the woman’s uterus.
Then, the couple waits for close to two weeks before doing a pregnancy test. Hopefully in that time the embryo has implanted into the lining of the uterus, resulting in a pregnancy. From then, this pregnancy progresses in exactly the same way as any other pregnancy.
How does it happen?
There are different ways that the egg and the sperm can be put together. They can be left in the dish to fertilize themselves which is the case with normal IVF, or to be even more controlled, the scientists can pick one of the healthiest looking sperm and inject it into the egg directly.
This technique is known as intracytoplasmic sperm injection or ‘ICSI’, and is extremely helpful in cases of male infertility, or if previous IVF cycles have failed to produce embryos.
IVF is more complex than described above, and there are many steps in the treatment process. However, all these treatments are designed with one goal in mind – to assist you in having a child.
For more info: IVF Clinic Services
