IVF - In-Vitro Fertilisation
What is IVF?
IVF (In-vitro fertilisation) is where an egg is combined with sperm outside the body in a laboratory setting. A woman or person can be medicated or have a ‘natural’ cycle (dependant on treatment plan) & eggs are retrieved from the ovaries under general anaesthetic (You must be accompanied & driven home afterwards). Eggs are collected from the ovaries whilst awake during an ‘egg retrieval’ or ‘egg collection’ after several weeks of medication. Once collected, it then involves the lab monitoring the sperm fertilise the eggs in liquid in a petri dish over 3-6 days where the cells double & multiply to become ‘blastocysts’. The ones that survive & are of the right ‘grade’ can be either transferred (1-2 in the UK at one time transferred back into the person’s uterus fertilised) this is called an ‘egg transfer’, or the rest can be frozen for other cycles or future siblings. Like IUI, this is done whilst awake.
The two week wait…
From there, it is a fourteen day wait to find out if you are pregnant. Some clinics tell patients that they can test as early as day ten due to hormone levels being high enough to detect a pregnancy, however, most say to wait until the fourteen day period so not to bring on any further anxiety. Be aware that medication provided after the embryo transfer may give you pregnancy symptoms, which can be confusing. Try to not test early if you can; Some women or people test as early as day 4 onwards- Up until day 5 you could still have the ‘trigger’ injection in your system which could give you a false positive, but some test around day eight or nine & get a positive. Testing early & getting a negative doesn’t mean you are not pregnant, as it may be that the HCG hormone is not high enough to detect a pregnancy & can cause distress- we always advise to try to hold out until test day. Some clinics advise testing on day ten however most say to wait until day fourteen or a confirmed result. Once you have confirmed a pregnancy, they will call you in to take bloods to check your hormone levels.
Medication
It is incredibly difficult to advise what medication you may require for treatment; Clinics use different brands of medications & depending on your treatment plan will be specific to your needs. You need to be prepared that you will have to be administering medication in the form of tablets, pessaries (rectally or vaginally), injections in the stomach & injections in the buttocks or thigh. If you have decided upon this route & want to know more about possible medications you may be required to take please contact us.
Known or Unknown Sperm Donor?
You can use a known donor even if you are going through a clinic & the donor will be subject to tests too (which will be at an additional cost). However, people tend to use donor sperm & this can cost anything from £700-£1000 per vial.
We would always advise if you are going down the IVF route to buy several vials of your chosen donor if you are able to. Even though IVF has a higher success rate than other methods, unlike IUI you may not need to ‘overbuy’ donor sperm because one vial is used to fertilize the eggs from one ‘egg collection’. Hopefully you may get multiple follicles & if you do once you have an embryo or two transferred, the remainder are already fertilised by the sperm & will be frozen at your request (& at an additional cost). However, you may need multiple attempts regardless of if you are fertile or have issues, so it is helpful to have several spare sperm vials frozen, just in case, as it isn’t unheard of to get no viable embryos (dependant on fertility issues) therefore you would need further vials.
Also, if you want to have multiple children or have a partner who also wishes to carry, you need to take this into consideration when buying donor sperm. Donors may ‘retire’ or reach their allocated family numbers (Sixty families in the US but only ten in the UK & Canada) & if they do, they cannot donate further- if you run out of vials you may then have to change donor, even if you have had a child by them already.
Seek legal advice
IVF Success rates differ dependant on clinics from 28% up to 68%. In the UK the national average for women under 38 with live births is 44% in the USA it is 47.5%
(If you are looking to use a fertility clinic, check what their success rates are for your specific treatment & your age bracket of ‘LIVE BIRTHS’).
Costs
IVF can cost anything from around £4k-£9k inclusive (dependant on medication, tests & treatment plan requirements however some clinics do offer ‘packages’ which cost less than £4k.) There are hidden costs that you need to take into consideration. You may require further additional tests, additional medications added to your protocol & do consider the cost of travel, parking & attending multiple appointments as these are hidden costs you may not have factored into your finance calculations.
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