Overcome Infertility With IVF Treatment

In vitro fertilization (commonly referred to as simply IVF) is a method of assisted reproduction that offers infertile couples a chance to have a baby that is biologically related to them. More than 200,000 babies have been born using IVF and it is now recognized worldwide as an established treatment for infertility.

With IVF, a man’s sperm and the woman’s egg are combined in a laboratory dish. The embryo which forms is then put into the woman’s uterus (womb) to develop naturally. Usually, 3 or 4 embryos are put in the uterus each time. Each attempt is referred to as a cycle, with the cost of each cycle being around $12,000.

So, what exactly is involved in each cycle? Here is a more detailed explanation…

The woman will be administered certain drugs (hormones) to induce her ovaries to create a number (5+) eggs. A surgeon then inserts a needle through the vagina into the woman’s ovary to remove the eggs. General anesthesia is not required when the surgeon does this, but the woman is sometimes administered some sedating medication. At the same time, a semen sample is taken from the man. He is asked not to have sex for half a week before the eggs are taken from his partner. The sperm are separated from the semen in a laboratory procedure.

Following this, the sperm will be mixed in a laboratory dish with the eggs taken from the woman. About 18 hours after this fertilization procedure, the laboratory dish is examined to determine if the egg or eggs have fertilized and if embryos have grown as a result. Should this have happened, they will be incubated over the next 2-7 days. The doctor then transfers the embryos into the woman’s uterus using a catheter (a long slender tube). She is then given a course of hormones to take for the following 10-14 days.

The success rate of this procedure is 36% among women younger than 35 years, 27% for those between 36-39 years, and 13% in those older than 40 years. Therefore, the total cost of IVF is normally more than $20,000, as the odds are against a couple suceeding first time around.

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