July 12, 2008
La Jolla IVF
IVF Products
Test tube babies, as they are commonly known, are created using IVF or In Vitro Fertilization which literally means fertilization in glass. The process involves sperm from a woman?s partner or a donor being placed in a dish with eggs that have been removed from her ovaries and fertilizing them before being placed in her womb. In Vitro Fertilization may be recommended for a number of reasons including; age, other techniques have failed, the woman?s tubes are blocked or the infertility cannot be explained.
The In Vitro Fertilization process should go something like the method set out below but may differ slightly between clinics. The first thing your doctor will do is to stop the hormones released by the pituitary gland during your period by the use of other drugs. The reason for this is to assist control over when the eggs are ready. Further drugs are given to ensure your ovaries create more than a single egg.
La Jolla IVF...
Estrogen levels produced by the eggs are monitored to ensure they rise, using vaginal ultrasound scans and blood tests. To help the eggs mature a different hormone will be injected once all the tests say the time is right. The timing for this injection is crucial and must be carried out no earlier that 34 or later than 38 hours before your eggs are collected. Eggs are usually collected by ultrasound guidance which takes around 30 minutes and you are either given a drug to make you drowsy or a general anesthetic.
It?s about this time that the man must produce some fresh sperm. After a short storage period the sperm are washed and spun at high speed to enable the most active and healthiest to be chosen. With donated sperm, the process is the same but the sample is taken from the freezer. Your eggs are then mixed with your partner?s sperm and left in a laboratory dish for 16-20 hours before they are checked to see if any have fertilized. Any that haven?t, or any that have fertilized abnormally, are discarded and the remaining embryos are then left for another 24-48 hours before being checked again.
In order to help prepare your womb, pessaries, gel or an injection are given two days after your eggs have been collected.
La Jolla IVF
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.