In-vitro Fertilization (IVF) is the most prevalent type of assisted reproductive technology, and it is used in the management of people who have trouble conceiving. IVF involves combining a woman's egg with a man's sperm in a laboratory. In-vitro implies "outside the body." IVF is used to help a woman get pregnant. It treats various reasons for infertility, including:
● Women's advanced age (maternal age)
● Damaged or obstructed fallopian tubes (induced by pelvic inflammatory illness or previous reproductive surgery)
● Endometriosis
● Male factor infertility, including reduced sperm count and blockage.
● Unexplained infertility
In-vitro Fertilization is the most successful reproductive procedure that involves the manipulation of eggs, sperm, and embryos.
IVF is normally considered as the standard of most of the conventional fertility treatments. It has been in existence for several decades. This process has indicated the possibility of IVF being the most effective treatment for couples who wish to have children. To increase the chances of success, IVF treatment has a series of procedures that have to be implemented to ensure the desired result is achieved.
The preliminary tests include tests for fertility with other medical examinations before getting into the IVF process. Also, an evaluation and assessment of your partner will be conducted.
Before the IVF treatment begins, your doctor may prescribe birth control pills, or estrogen may be prescribed. This is used to prevent ovarian cyst formation and regulate the time of the menstrual cycle.
Injectable hormone drugs are used during your IVF process to promote the complete and simultaneous maturation of all the eggs. You might have many eggs rather than just one, like in a normal cycle.
Your doctor will insert a small needle into each of your ovaries through your vagina, using an ultrasound to guide the needle. Your eggs are extracted from each follicle with the help of a suction device that is attached to the needle. Your eggs are placed in one dish with a particular solution in an incubator under an environment of your choice. Oocyte cryopreservation, or egg freezing, is the collection and freezing of a woman’s eggs in case she can use them in IVF to conceive at a later stage in her life.
In the egg-freezing procedure, the eggs are then removed and placed in a process known as intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), where a single sperm is injected directly into the egg. After this, the eggs grow in the culture until the embryonic stage is attained.
To turn into an embryo suitable for transplantation to your uterus, your embryo has to endure a number of obstacles. On day five or six after fertilisation, any embryos that are suitable for transfer will be preserved and used in future embryo transfers.
Fresh and frozen embryo transfers are the two types of embryo transfers. You will take oral, injectable, vaginal, or transdermal hormones as part of the initial phase of a frozen embryo transfer to get your uterus ready to accept an embryo.
Pregnancy start from the time gravis attaches itself to the lining of the uterus. Blood test to check whether one is pregnant will be done on about 9 to 14 days after the embryo transfer. This test determines beta-hCG, a hormone made in the placenta in early pregnancy and afterwards only present in the blood.
Factors influencing IVF success include age, previous pregnancy, fertility issues, egg and embryo quality, sperm quality, controlled ovarian stimulation (COH) protocol, embryo transfer, and uterine receptivity.
Age is a major predictor of IVF success. In general, younger women have better success rates than older women because of the natural fall in fertility as a woman matures.
Among women who have had previous IVF, chances of a successful pregnancy are likely to repeat themselves, especially if the previous attempt was successful. However, if a woman has had several cycles of IVF with negative results or before that, she might have had one or some miscarriages, her chances will be less.
Another factor that influences the success rates of IVF is the general quality of eggs and embryos used. High-quality eggs mean a larger number of quality eggs and hence, the women capable of getting through it have better chances. Egg donation is a process whereby a woman, the donor, provides her eggs to another woman, the recipient, to enable her to have a pregnancy and a child. The receiver can use the eggs to have a baby through the IVF treatment methods, also known as the process where the woman’s eggs are fertilised with sperm from a donor.
This type of fertility treatment may also not work well, especially with men who have low sperm concentration, poor sperm mobility, or abnormal sperm morphology.
Some of these factors may have negative effects on IVF outcomes, mainly smoking, alcohol and stressed lifestyle. IVF success rate is greatly determined by the health and lifestyle of the individuals!
Currently, IVF is a series of treatments normally lasting four to eight weeks, from consultation to embryo transfer. Depending on your health, the treatment plan, and the fertility clinic, the duration could vary.
It is very important to consider and comprehend the many aspects that play a role to IVF success rates, for those who are planning to undergo such fertility treatment. For the best results, it is recommended that you undergo an initial consultation with an expert fertility specialist and learn about the factors that must be taken into consideration to influence IVF outcomes.
The chances of IVF success depend on several factors such as; age, previous pregnancy, type of fertility problem, quality of eggs and embryos, quality of sperm, COH protocols, techniques of embryo deposition, receptiveness of the uterus, lifestyle, and weight.
Pregnancy starts when the embryo burrows into the uterus, creating the thick lining known as endometrium. After 9 to 14 days of the procedure of embryo transfer, your healthcare provider will do a blood test to determine whether you are pregnant or not. Blood tests assess hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin), a hormone generated by the placenta during pregnancy.
The day of embryo transfer serves as the beginning point for measuring pregnancy weeks following IVF. The embryo stage during transfer, whether three or five days following fertilisation, is critical for determining the due date.
