In vitro fertilization or IVF has proved to be a boon for hundreds and thousands of couples who were struggling with infertility. One of the most trusted and popular assisted reproductive techniques, IVF is offered at all the leading fertility clinics in Noida. If you are planning to go for IVF, this blog will help you to understand the whole procedure by giving you an insight into these 7 weeks of a life-changing journey.
Week 1 – Detailed clinical consultation
Week 1 of your journey is initiated with a detailed clinical consultation during which your doctor will go through your medical records and ask you and your partner some questions regarding your sexual health. The thorough evaluation will help your doctor to tailor a perfect treatment plan that will yield the best results for you. Once you have committed to a desired treatment plan, doctors from the best IVF center in Gaur City will brief you about the same and address all your queries and concerns to make sure that you are well informed and prepared.
Week 2 to 4 – Pre-treatment preparation
By now you will have a good idea of how your IVF journey is going to be and our focus will shift towards assessing your infertility condition and preparing your body for the treatment. This involves a series of tests and screenings for precision-based evaluation of your reproductive health. Infertility specialist in Noida usually recommend the following tests:
- Ultrasound
- Blood analysis
- Uterine evaluation
- Sperm analysis
Based on the assessment reports, you and your partner will be recommended to go for individual fertility treatments to address your specific shortcomings so as to prepare your body for the IVF treatment. Healthy lifestyle modifications with the right supplements and hormonal medications not only help to prepare your body but also contribute towards enhancing the success rate of the procedure.
Week 5 – COH (Controlled Ovarian Hyperstimulation)
Week 5 is quite crucial and majorly aims at preparing the ovaries. The stimulation procedure involves 2 steps i.e. medication and monitoring. Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and Human menopausal gonadotropin medications are given for a period of 2 weeks to stimulate the ovarian follicles for producing more eggs. These medicines can either be taken orally or injected directly. During this, the doctors will monitor your ovaries on regular basis, 5 to 7 times in total, so as to trace the follicle and egg development.
Week 7- Induced Fertilization and embryo transfer
As soon as the follicle development reaches appropriate size, hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) hormone is administered to induce egg maturation. This is followed by egg retrieval, which is usually done within 36 hours of the final dosage.
Egg retrieval is performed under sedation and takes a few minutes. It is carried out using transvaginal ultrasound technique with the help of a long needle. The doctor removes multiple eggs in one go. The patient is likely to feel post-procedural cramping which is natural and may last up to a couple of hours.
Sperm retrieval is also done on the same day as egg retrieval. The sperm may either be taken from a sample of semen provided by the male partner or via surgical sperm retrieval.
Once the sperm and the egg have been retrieved, these are placed together in an incubator under favourable conditions and the process of fertilization is allowed to take place. This is known as conventional insemination. In case the sperm is not healthy enough to penetrate the cytoplasm of the egg, doctors will recommend intracytoplasmic sperm injection or ICSI, in which the sperm is directly injected into the cytoplasm of the mature egg.
Embryo transfer is usually done after 2 to 5 days following the egg retrieval and is done under the influence of sedatives. 70 to 80 per cent of the procedures offered by Zeeva, which is one of the leading IVF clinics in Noida, are now done in a frozen cycle which means Embryo transfer is done in the next month. This involves the use of transvaginal ultrasound technique. A syringe with the embryo is connected to one end of the catheter and it is carefully passed through the vagina, via the cervix, into the uterus. The embryo, so transferred, will attach to the uterine lining.
The final step is the pregnancy test, which is usually done 12 to 14 days post egg retrieval. This marks the beginning of your parenthood journey.
IVF journey comes with a lot of ups and downs but with the right care and guidance, the journey becomes easier and worth remembering. Each and every step of the journey is important as these take you closer to your dream of having a baby.
