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The IVF is a very sensitive procedure under Assisted Reproductive Technology. Here we bring you the step-to-step procedure of IVF for a better knowledge.

1. Pre-IVF scan: The initial process of IVF is to take an ultrasound scan of the ovaries to assess ovarian reserve and overall ovarian health. Also blood flow in the ovaries is checked to determine if the ovaries of the mother is healthy enough for a successful IVF treatment.
2. Ovarian Stimulation: The IVF specialist or the RE (Reproductive Endocrinologist) after a successful ovarian scan, injects stimulating medicines called HCG (human Chorionic Gonadotropin) for the growth of ovarian follicles to produce mature eggs which causes ovulation after a breeding period of 36 hours.
3. Retrieval of eggs: Once the eggs are matured and released after the induced ovulation, they are collected for fertilization
4. Fertilization of the eggs: The collected eggs are mixed with the sperms from the partner or donor in clinical labs and kept and monitored for fertilization. The process of embryo development takes 2-5 days.
5. Embryo transfer: Created Embryo is cultured and monitored for up to 5 days. Sometimes more than one or two embryos are also cultured. In such cases the Excess Embryos maybe put in for freezing to be used in the next cycle - in case the need arises. Transfer of embryo into the mother’s uterus happens afterwards by placing the embryo to mother’s uterus.
6. Rest period: Complete rest of up to seven days is suggested post this process so that the embryo could adjust to the new environment.
7. Pregnancy test: After ten days of embryo transfer, blood sample of the mother/surrogate is taken for a pregnancy test upon detecting the early signs of pregnancy.
8. Declaration of pregnancy: If the embryo remains sticking to the wall for up to 25 days, the doctor declares pregnancy.

1. If the father faces problems of low sperm count and/or low sperm mobility.
2. If the mother has problems in her fallopian tubes such as blockage, weak follicles, or a complicated uterus.
3. Low cervix response in mother.
4. If either father/mother or both have some disease and they don’t want it to travel to their baby.
5. If one is single parent/same sex parents and wants to fulfil their desire to become parents.

IVF is a very sensitive scientific technique. However, IVF has its own shortcomings. Some of them are as follows:

1. Risk of multiple births: An artificially cultured process sometimes leads to multiple creations of embryos leading to multiple births.
2. Excessive bleeding: During egg retrieval, problems like ovarian swelling, minor discomforts to bladder and blood vessels can occur.
3. Miscarriage: Chance of miscarriage is there even in IVF. However, percentage chance is same as normal pregnancy.
4. Premature delivery: sometimes babies are born before the delivery date. Also there is a chance of low weight babies.
5. Risk of Hyper Stimulation Syndrome: a medical condition affecting the ovaries might happen. However chances are lower than 0.2%.

IVF procedure yields a very high success rates as compared to other methods of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART). For Specialized Centres and Doctors it maybe as high as 68% (please refer to ELA Blogs for more specific Success Rates by Centres in India), while for Centres with lesser experience it maybe as low as 12%. However, the outcome may also vary from couple to couple depending on following factors such as:

1. Women with high maternal age (older than 40 years) have lesser chance to achieve pregnancy through IVF than a young woman due to ovarian reserve and ovarian cell issues.
2. Women who were previously pregnant successfully has two times higher the chance than women who never conceived prior to IVF.
3. Genetic factors like chromosomes, DNA, RNA etc. vary from person to person and one with good gene pool has more chance to conceive through IVF.
4. Women with hormonal problems such as high level of PCOS (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome) have slightly lower chances of IVF success than women without such problems. However the percentage change is very minimal.
5. Women with weight issues fetches lower chances of IVF success than a healthy woman.
6. IVF success rates also depend on the sperm quality (count, motility etc.) of the father/donor. Those with problems with sperm are suggested to go for additional method such as ICSI (intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection), MESA (Microsurgical Epididymal Sperm Aspiration), TESA (Testicular Sperm Aspiration) etc. combined with IVF method.