Procedures required for IVF / ICSI treatment:
1. Ovarian Stimulation
One or two eggs are produced by the ovaries every month in the natural menstrual cycle. In an IVF cycle, the aim is to obtain more eggs, and thus to be able to create more embryos, by the administration of hormones to stimulate egg production by the ovaries
2. Follicular Puncture (oocyte pickup or egg retrieval)
The development of follicles will be monitored regularly by ultrasound. This will allow for the best time for the triggering of ovulation by the application of a hormonal injection called human Chorionic Gonadotrophin (hCG). The egg collection (Follicular Puncture) will be scheduled for 34-36 hours after this injection. The egg collection procedure is performed using a fine ultrasound-guided needle, under local anesthesia, or in some cases under general anesthesia.
3. Oocyte Fertilization and Embryo Culture
The same day of the oocyte pick-up procedure, the husband has to provide a semen sample, which is prepared and used for fertilizing the oocyte either by introducing a specific amount of sperm to the eggs in culture media dishes (IVF) or by injecting each oocyte with a single sperm (ICSI). In both ways, the oocytes will be cultured overnight in incubators with controlled parameters of temperature and gas concentration to achieve hopefully good quality embryos.
4. Embryo Transfer
The embryos are evaluated daily to monitor their progress. To determine the best day for transfer, several factors have to be considered:
1. previous treatment history
2. the development of the embryos (cell number and quality)
3. also whether any genetic testing will be done on the embryo
The physician and the embryologist will decide when to transfer the embryo(s) to ensure that the patient has the best chance of pregnancy.
The embryo(s) is/are transferred under ultrasound guidance into the uterus by using a thin catheter. It is a simple, and painless procedure, and sedation or anesthesia is not required. It is recommended to move immediately after the embryo transfer and not to remain in the bed. After embryo transfer, the patients can contact our team for any concern and will be contacted and reminded to do a blood pregnancy test 14 days later.