What are the steps of IVF?Click to see more details
Cycle
Your cycle Day 1 (first day of full bleed, any time during the day)
Baseline Check
This accompanies an ultrasound assessment to measure your antral follicle count (AFC) and assure there are no significant ovarian cysts. These measurement parameters signal the best time to start a treatment cycle. Once your primary fertility doctor has reviewed the results of your baseline ultrasound, we will see whether this is a good cycle to get started and begin to tailor your own fertility treatment plan.
Follicle Stimulation
We try to maximize your chances of success by generating as many mature eggs as possible in an IVF cycle. The stimulation phase involves the fertility shots and medication for 8-10 days, to induce the ovaries to produce as many mature eggs as possible.
Monitoring Visit
Monitoring visit in general involves a follicle monitoring ultrasound and a blood test to track the development of a follicle (or follicles) and monitor for ovulation. We may want you to visit the clinic more frequently towards the end of the stimulation phase. This usually involves 1-2 appointments, though more appointments may be needed.
Egg Retrieval
We recommend you arrive at our center 10 minutes before your procedure is scheduled to begin. This will allow you plenty of time to complete your paperwork and consult with the nurse and physician performing the procedure. Your physician will then use an ultrasound machine and probe to identify and retrieve eggs from your follicles. After this procedure, you will relax in our recovery room until you feels ready to head home.
Fertilization
Our embryologist will carefully evaluate the condition of your eggs. The healthiest sperm are identified from the provided sample, then the eggs are fertilized. In some cases, Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) may be performed.
We’ll give you a call the day after your egg retrieval to let you know how things have gone. As we know you will want to find out how many of your eggs have fertilized.
Fresh Embryo Transfer
During fresh embryo transfer, one or more recently developed embryos from the current cycle of IVF are transferred into the uterus– often 3 to 5 days after egg retrieval.
Pregnancy Test
Your primary fertility doctor will likely to schedule a hCG blood test 14 days after the embryo transfer. And will most likely order an ultrasound during your early pregnancy before releasing you to a regular obstetrician.
Transvaginal Ultrasound
A vaginal ultrasound will be performed to see whether this is a good cycle to get started.
Fertility Shots & Medication
Your primary fertility doctor will prescribe medication specific to your body and treatment plan, it is usually in the form of injection.
Transvaginal Ultrasound
Your fertility doctor will monitor your response to the fertility shots with a follicle monitoring ultrasound.
Bloodwork
Your primary fertility doctor may request hormone level check to further track your response to the fertility shots. These hormone include Estradiol (E2), Luteinizing Hormone (LH) and Progesterone (P4).
Trigger Shot
Once the ovarian follicles have achieved an adequate size, a“trigger shot” of a large dose of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) is given to induce final maturation of the eggs.
The timing of this injection needs to be very precise, and an egg retrieval procedure is then scheduled for 34-36 hours following this trigger injection.
Collect a Semen Sample
On the day of the egg retrieval , your male partner needs to provide his semen sample as well.
Progesterone support after Embryo Transfer
You will be given instructions for progesterone supplementation for your embryo transfer. The progesterone is usually administered via injection and vaginal suppositories.
Bloodwork
A blood pregnancy test (hCG level) will be scheduled, approximately 12-14 days after embryo transfer. If you discover vaginal bleeding after embryo transfer, it does not mean that the procedure was unsuccessful. The test is to confirm that the level of hCG is rising appropriately.
In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF)
In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF) is a technology that introduces the female egg (oocyte) and male sperm together in a specialized culture medium where the chances of successful fertilization are greatly enhanced. The embryos are observed and grown in our IVF laboratory, where they are graded for quality and reintroduced to the recipient's uterus at a multicell embryo stage or later at the blastocyst embryo stage. All procedures required during an IVF cycle, including ovarian stimulation and monitoring, egg retrieval and embryo transfer, are performed on-site in our state-of-the-art facilities.
It needs about one month to complete the treatment of Oocyte retrieval and Embryo Transfer .You need to visit Dr. Wang Reproductive Fertility Center at least 5 times in the whole process.
The days for ultrasounds test and oocyte retrieval operation are very close; therefore, we suggest you come visit Taiwan to finish these in the one vacation.
