One of the most effective biotechnological methods in treating infertility is the IVF method. During this treatment, the retrieved eggs and sperms are fertilized in the laboratory and the resulting embryo is transferred to the female partner’s uterus. However, some couples may face IVF failure due to high maternal age, low egg quality, a problem in embryo’s development in the laboratory, implantation failure, etc.
IVF is the most commonly known assisted reproductive technology for fertility treatment. This method involves retrieving eggs from a woman’s ovaries and fertilizing them with sperm in the laboratory.
IVF as a method of assisted conception can be done both with the couple’s own gametes or with donated ones. Despite having high success rate, IVF with donor egg is a bit pricier than the regular IVF; therefore, many couples prefer getting this fertility treatment in another country to lower their expenses.
Thanks to medical advancements and innovations, many fertility treatments have been devised nowadays to help infertile couples expand their family. Whether the cause of infertility is a male or female factors, age, genetic disorders, or serious health issues of the parents, assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) such as IVF, ICSI, and IUI can help the couples conceive.
Using donor eggs in IVF is the ultimate solution for women who cannot have a baby with their eggs. Some factors make infertile couples turn to donor eggs. Although IVF with a donor egg has a lower rate of miscarriage and development of Down Syndrome than other methods, it can still have some risks and side effects for both the egg donor and the recipient.
In vitro fertilization is an assisted reproductive technology in which the egg and sperm are fertilized in the laboratory and the resulting embryo is transferred into the mother’s uterus. Since IVF is a costly and complicated treatment, many patients travel abroad to get it at a more affordable price.
ICSI is one of the steps of IVF treatment in which a healthy and motile sperm is directly injected into the egg to fertilize it. Although ICSI with IVF increases the chance of successful pregnancy, it may lead to multiple births (twins or triplets) and put the mother’s life at risk.
Waiting for embryo to implant in the uterus is the hardest part of fertility treatment for almost all patients. This two-week period can bring about lots of emotions, from the hope that you finally get pregnant to anxiety that the implantation may fail. The best way to reduce your stress is to know more about what symptoms you may experience during this 14-day wait time after embryo transfer.
All couples who use assisted reproductive techniques such as IVF, seek different methods to increase their chance of successful pregnancy. One way to increase your chances of IVF implantation is to have a proper diet after embryo transfer.
Today, medical advances made it possible to choose the gender of future children with almost 100% accuracy. By using the preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) technique, couples who use assisted reproduction techniques -such as IVF- can determine the gender of their baby before transferring the embryo to the uterus.