Ready to start a family and find yourself not conceiving as quickly, or naturally as you had hoped – you're not alone one in six couples of reproductive age need assistance to start a family. Assisted conception nowadays provides the highest possible chance of starting a family as the success of ivf treatment has overtaken natural conception. So what is IVF treatment?
Put simply IVF fertility treatment (in vitro fertilization) is a procedure where an egg and sperm are joined together outside the body in a specialized laboratory. The fertilized egg, embryo, is allowed to grow in a protected environment for a few days before being transferred into the woman's uterus.
What is IVF Treatment?
During In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF), mature eggs are collected from the woman's ovary after the ovaries have been artificially stimulated to increase the number of eggs produced. The eggs are then placed with the sperm in a laboratory. Fertilisation takes place without further intervention. After the resulting embryos have developed for 2 – 5 days in the laboratory, one or two are transferred to the woman's uterus.
Today embryos are commonly grown in the laboratory until Day 5, known as the Blastocyst stage. There is strong evidence both internationally and within Australia that embryos grown to this stage are more likely to implant into a woman's uterus once a fresh transfer takes place.
What is the IVF treatment process?
The IVF treatment process usually begins with a referral from a General Practitioner to a fertility specialist. Your fertility specialist will take a medical history of both the male and female, physical examination, blood tests for her and a semen analysis for him. Depending on the results, your age and medical history your doctor will recommend the most appropriate form of assisted conception and usually he or a nurse will then provide a detailed orientation to answer all the usual questions: What is IVF treatment going to involve? What are the IVF treatment side effects? What are the IVF treatment success rates? What is the IVF treatment cycle support available? What is the IVF treatment cost? What is the IVF treatment process?
What is the IVF treatment cycle?
Typically an IVF treatment cycle takes about 5- 6 weeks. Blood tests usually indicate the right time to start the IVF treatment cycle, which involves giving yourself Follicle Stimulating Hormone medication to encourage greater egg production by your ovaries than what occurs in a normal menstrual cycle.
Blood and ultrasound monitoring will tell us when you have an optimum number and size of follicles (which contain the eggs) then we will plan your egg collection. You will have a trigger injection of HCG (human chorionic gonatrophin) in the evening and the operation for egg collection will occur 36 to 38 hours later.
Egg collection in an IVF treatment cycle is undertaken in day hospital under a light general anaesthetic. On the morning of your egg collection your partner will need to provide a fresh semen (sperm) sample so we can immediately fertilise your eggs after collection.
Collected eggs are taken to the laboratory and placed in culture medium in preparation of fertilisation later that day. In the IVF treatment process, prepared sperm and eggs are placed together in a dish where fertilisation occurs. Sometimes an individual sperm is selected by a highly experienced embryologist, and, under very delicate microscopic control, the egg is injected with this single sperm.
The embryos are then allowed to develop in individual incubators at 37 degrees (mimicking the temperature of the human body) for about 5 days. Embryo transfer is often the most emotional part of the IVF treatment cycle albeit a simple procedure performed in a day hospital about five days after the egg collection. The embryos are transferred into the uterus through a very fine catheter passed through the cervix, a procedure similar to a pap smear.
The nurses will organise an appointment for you to have a blood pregnancy test two weeks after the embryo transfer, whether your period has commenced or not, as occasionally women can have a period but still be pregnant. The only reliable pregnancy test is a blood test. If the pregnancy test is positive, we will arrange an ultrasound scan approximately three weeks later and that is the end of your IVF infertility treatment process.
What is the IVF treatment cost?
In Australia we are fortunate that the Federal Government through its medicare and safety net program supports people needing IVF treatment with considerable rebates. Many clinics have IVF treatment process payment plans that time payment as close to egg collection as possible to minimize the length of time patients are out of pocket for their IVF treatment cost.
Most infertility can be treated quickly and successfully with the help of IVF treatment. Don't wait more than 6 months if you are over 35 or 12 months if you are under, to seek help to conceive.
Put simply IVF fertility treatment (in vitro fertilization) is a procedure where an egg and sperm are joined together outside the body in a specialized laboratory. The fertilized egg, embryo, is allowed to grow in a protected environment for a few days before being transferred into the woman's uterus.
What is IVF Treatment?
During In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF), mature eggs are collected from the woman's ovary after the ovaries have been artificially stimulated to increase the number of eggs produced. The eggs are then placed with the sperm in a laboratory. Fertilisation takes place without further intervention. After the resulting embryos have developed for 2 – 5 days in the laboratory, one or two are transferred to the woman's uterus.
Today embryos are commonly grown in the laboratory until Day 5, known as the Blastocyst stage. There is strong evidence both internationally and within Australia that embryos grown to this stage are more likely to implant into a woman's uterus once a fresh transfer takes place.
What is the IVF treatment process?
The IVF treatment process usually begins with a referral from a General Practitioner to a fertility specialist. Your fertility specialist will take a medical history of both the male and female, physical examination, blood tests for her and a semen analysis for him. Depending on the results, your age and medical history your doctor will recommend the most appropriate form of assisted conception and usually he or a nurse will then provide a detailed orientation to answer all the usual questions: What is IVF treatment going to involve? What are the IVF treatment side effects? What are the IVF treatment success rates? What is the IVF treatment cycle support available? What is the IVF treatment cost? What is the IVF treatment process?
What is the IVF treatment cycle?
Typically an IVF treatment cycle takes about 5- 6 weeks. Blood tests usually indicate the right time to start the IVF treatment cycle, which involves giving yourself Follicle Stimulating Hormone medication to encourage greater egg production by your ovaries than what occurs in a normal menstrual cycle.
Blood and ultrasound monitoring will tell us when you have an optimum number and size of follicles (which contain the eggs) then we will plan your egg collection. You will have a trigger injection of HCG (human chorionic gonatrophin) in the evening and the operation for egg collection will occur 36 to 38 hours later.
Egg collection in an IVF treatment cycle is undertaken in day hospital under a light general anaesthetic. On the morning of your egg collection your partner will need to provide a fresh semen (sperm) sample so we can immediately fertilise your eggs after collection.
Collected eggs are taken to the laboratory and placed in culture medium in preparation of fertilisation later that day. In the IVF treatment process, prepared sperm and eggs are placed together in a dish where fertilisation occurs. Sometimes an individual sperm is selected by a highly experienced embryologist, and, under very delicate microscopic control, the egg is injected with this single sperm.
The embryos are then allowed to develop in individual incubators at 37 degrees (mimicking the temperature of the human body) for about 5 days. Embryo transfer is often the most emotional part of the IVF treatment cycle albeit a simple procedure performed in a day hospital about five days after the egg collection. The embryos are transferred into the uterus through a very fine catheter passed through the cervix, a procedure similar to a pap smear.
The nurses will organise an appointment for you to have a blood pregnancy test two weeks after the embryo transfer, whether your period has commenced or not, as occasionally women can have a period but still be pregnant. The only reliable pregnancy test is a blood test. If the pregnancy test is positive, we will arrange an ultrasound scan approximately three weeks later and that is the end of your IVF infertility treatment process.
What is the IVF treatment cost?
In Australia we are fortunate that the Federal Government through its medicare and safety net program supports people needing IVF treatment with considerable rebates. Many clinics have IVF treatment process payment plans that time payment as close to egg collection as possible to minimize the length of time patients are out of pocket for their IVF treatment cost.
Most infertility can be treated quickly and successfully with the help of IVF treatment. Don't wait more than 6 months if you are over 35 or 12 months if you are under, to seek help to conceive.