The Fertility Journey: Understanding In Vitro Fertilisation Treatment

Jun 28, 2022

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The Fertility Journey: Understanding In Vitro Fertilisation Treatment

The planned path your doctor develops for you and your fertility journey may point to IVF. Understanding IVF and what it entails will help you prepare for the procedure both mentally and physically. The more steps you take to understand the process and effects of treatment can lessen fears and anxiety or uncertainty you may have. We encourage you to ask your doctor /fertility specialist questions as you further educate yourself about IVF.

What is IVF? IVF is the process of fertilizing a women’s egg outside the body. The procedure takes a women’s eggs (retrieved via a transvaginal ultrasound-guided needle), and the male sperm (retrieved via masturbation) and combines them in a lab to see if they fertilise.

IVF is part of OUR Story

We are proud of our pioneering history. Monash IVF achieved the world’s first IVF pregnancy in 1973 and in 1980, Monash IVF achieved Australia’s first IVF baby, the third in the world.

The Monash IVF KPJ Johor partnership carries forward the pioneering legacy of innovation and experience in assisted reproductive technology (ART) in Asia helping patients realise dreams of parenthood. Strategically located in southeast Asia, Monash IVF KPJ Fertility Center services patients living in Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, and Indonesia.

Over the decades, technology has increasingly evolved providing patient’s chances of having a baby and building a family better than ever.

IVF Process (In Vitro means ‘in the lab’ )

We like to remind patients that IVF is a medical procedure where the process takes place in the lab. Our embryologist places the egg and sperm in a culture dish to allow fertilisation. When fertilization occurs, an embryo will form. The embryos are then moved into an incubator and their growth is monitored for 3-5 days. At day 5, and at the blastocyst stage, embryos are transferred and inserted into the woman’s uterus.

IVF – Steps in the IVF Journey

Your Starting Point– Contact us to book a consultation with one of our fertility specialists. Through a fertility health check and medical evaluation, our team takes time to get to know you, answers your questions, and lends further explanation about fertility challenges you are facing. The consultation also provides you the forum to get to know your specialist and further insight about your own fertility.

Over a course of 7-14 days, ovaries are stimulated with injection hormones . Our doctors prescribe the medications to you and medication/drugs are administered at home by you. Your questions or concerns about the medication and the administration of the medication will be thoroughly discussed and explained to you by our fertility team during your counselling and consultation.

IVF treatment and the process of IVF allows the female to produce more eggs. Your body’s normal ovulation cycle stimulates and creates ONE healthy egg to be produced at each of your natural menstrual cycle. The injection hormones given to you in the IVF process are at higher doses in order to help produce multiple eggs (around 10-15).

During the stimulation stage, you can expect to visit your doctor’s office for vaginal ultrasound assessments of the follicle/egg growth. The doctor will assess the number of eggs being stimulated and determine when they are ready to be retrieved.

Egg Collection Time – Oocyte Retrieval

Our specialists will let you know what date will be right for you for the egg retrieval procedure. You and your partner will be instructed to attend the appointment together.

The Monash IVF KPJ fertility specialists will retrieve the stimulated eggs in a day procedure. Egg retrieval is a minor surgery performed while you are asleep under sedation provided by the anesthesiologist.

On the egg collection day, your partner will provide the clinicians a sample of his sperm (or per your prior arrangement, the donor sample is prepared in our laboratory).

Fertilisation

Our embryologists combine the egg and the sperm in the lab. During the fertilisation stage, we strive to create as many embryos as possible. The embryologist team will identify the healthy embryos and those will be transferred to your uterus.

In the event, where sperm cells require extra help with fertilisation, the specialist may recommend an assisted reproductive technology called, ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection), which involves the injection of a single sperm directly into a mature egg. ICSI may be applied in severe cases of male-factor infertility, pre-implantation genetic testing of embryos (PGT), when few eggs are produced during ovarian stimulation or if past IVF cycles have failed at the fertilization stage.

Embryo Transfer

If the eggs are fertilized, they become embryos. Our embryologist will grow the embryos for 5 days to blastocyst stage (blastocyst refers to a human embryo 5 days after fertilisation). It is at this point you’ll visit our centre and have the embryo/s transferred into your uterus. In the case, where you have additional embryos, we’ll freeze them so you may use them for another IVF cycle, if necessary.

Final Stage -Two Weeks Waiting Period

Once the embryos are transferred to your uterus, there will be a two-week waiting time to see if the embryos ‘take’. After the waiting period, we’ll have you do a blood test to determine whether you’re pregnant.

Waiting to hear the news about whether you are pregnant can be emotionally exhausting. Discuss and decide a coping strategy with your partner. We are here to counsel you.

The team at Monash IVF KPJ Johor Fertility Centre is here for you every step of the way. We’ll help you understand and explain the steps you are taking in your fertility journey and provide the needed support along the way.