IVF Fertility Blog

What is IVF? Do you remember when you first heard the word IVF , you probably had to repeat it in your head at least a few times just to get the hang of it. At that point, most people are clueless about the treatment and the first image that flashes before their eyes was of a baby attached to tubes in a giant test tube. At some point you will realise how utterly wrong It was! There is a huge amount of information available online that can be bewildering and in the worst-case scenario, misguiding. From my experience, I can tell you that this is not what one should do as there is no way to tell authentic and genuine information from the inaccurate and unreliable. Therefore, instead of choosing to lurk and wallow in confusion, consult a clinician for all your questions and doubts. Trust your clinician, ask the right questions, and that will be your best bet at understanding IVF. Everything during the treatment is tailor-made. That is, during IVF, one person’s treatment is designed for tha...

Embryo transfer   is the process of putting the embryos that are growing in the lab back into the uterus. The period during which the embryos remain in the lab as we have seen in the previous chapter is one where important procedures are undertaken and crucial decisions are made. While growing the embryo is the responsibility of the embryologist, depositing them in the uterus is the job of the clinician. Embryo transfer can be done during any one of the four stages of embryo development ·  Day 2 (cleavage stage) ·  Day 3 (cleavage stage)                                                          ·  Day 5 (Blastocyst stage) ·  Day 6 (Blastocyst stage) Embryo transfer to be done at which sta...

The Egg, Sperm, and Embryo The three key players or the stars at fertility clinics are: 1. Egg/Oocyte/Ovum 2. Sperm 3. Embryo The Egg The egg is one of the largest cells in the human body; in fact, it is a giant compared to other cells in the body. No other cell in the body is anywhere quite as big. Yet it is not large enough to be seen by the naked eye. It should be remembered that everything examined inside the embryology lab is microscopic.  Women are born with approximately two million eggs which keep diminishing as the age progresses. Naturally, the first day of menstruation, when the bleeding starts, is counted as the first day of the cycle. One of the ovaries will release an egg (ovulation) about 14 days before the start of periods. Eggs are released randomly by any one of the two ovaries.  An egg lives in the fallopian tubes for about 12-24 hours after ovulation. Of the three players, the oocyte or the egg is the most important component. The success of the treatment d...

Quick Tips to Vitrification   Cryopreservation of oocytes or embryos is a critical step in maximizing the efficiency of any IVF cycle. To achieve clinical success with cryopreservation is highly variable from laboratory to laboratory, and may depend on many factors including patient age and stimulation protocol, quality of embryos selected for freezing, developmental stage at freezing, media formulation including type of method used, parameters of cooling and warming.  All through our time in and outside of the laboratory, during discussions, we have heard vitrification is so difficult. Believe us, vitrification, is not difficult. Having said this, yes, we agree that there are certain critical steps you need to focus on and keep in mind and the rest just follows through. Principle: Vitrification can be defined as an extreme elevation in viscosity, i.e. solidification of solutions without ice crystal formation at low temperature. This phenomenon can be induced by either ap...

The following is a general overview of what a step-by-step IVF timeline looks like. These times can vary slightly according to your particular infertility diagnosis, your body’s hormone levels and its response to the various treatment steps. Step 1 – Your Menstrual Cycle  While IVF does involve manipulation of the ovaries and the use of fertility injections to stimulate egg maturation and release, we still work with your body’s natural menstrual cycle and hormone production. Thus, your IVF cycle will begin on the second or third day of the menstrual period closest to from when you scheduled your IVF treatment. Step 2 – Ovarian Stimulation  Now that your ovaries and hormones are in sync, you’re ready to begin the ovarian stimulation process. For this, your clinician will use a single hormone or a combination of hormones in order to get multiple follicles awake, maturing and ready for use. On an average, the ovarian stimulation process lasts for about 8 to 12 days. Dur...

  Rishina Bansal/Navin Desai Introduction As known Assisted reproductive technology (ART) comprises of intra-uterine insemination (IUI), conventional In-vitro fertilization (IVF) and intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). Though currently, when we talk about an IVF cycle, we are largely referring to conventional IVF or ICSI. The decision of applying which process would depend upon what information we have regarding the couple based on couple history, their current examination report like semen analysis and ovarian scan. In general, every IVF lab should be governed by parameters known as key performance indicators (KPIs) or sometimes referred to as performance indicators (PIs) which are important for the systematic monitoring of the laboratory. Basis: As embryologists, we term the OPU day as Day 0 and we culture the embryos thus formed maximum to Day 5 sometimes to Day 6, thus a typical embryology cycle spread across Day0 – Day5/6. However, the preparation for the cycle starts a...