IVF or In Vitro Fertilisation
IVF or in vitro fertilisation is a treatment in which we remove eggs from your ovaries and fertilise it with sperm in the laboratory. We then return the fertilised egg, called an embryo, to your womb to grow and develop into a baby.
One in six couples will seek the advice of a fertility specialist to help them achieve pregnancy. Thirty percent of these couples may need In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) or Intracytoplasmic Sperm Insemination (ICSI) treatment.
At London IVF and Genetics Centre, we thoroughly assess and investigate all patients considering IVF. Based on our detailed assessment, we prepare an individualised treatment protocol.
This IVF treatment protocol involves the use of different kinds of fertility drugs and injections as we move through different stages of IVF treatment.
Some patients will start with ‘downregulation’ drugs to shut down the ovaries. Following this, we will give them medications to stimulate their ovaries. This is part of controlled ovarian stimulation.
We carefully monitor you on a regular basis. When we consider your eggs mature, we’ll collect them. Egg collection is a minor day surgical procedure, which we do while you’re under sedation.
Your male partner will provide a semen sample on the day of the egg collection. We then prepare and wash the sample. We then place the eggs and several thousands of sperm cells together in a dish containing nutrient fluid. Then, we place the dish in an incubator, overnight.
We assess the embryos on a daily basis for their development and grading. Some patients may consider using real-time assessment (CARE Maps Embryoscope) of the embryos during incubation. This optimises the embryo selection procedure.
The technique involves using embryo development time kinetics algorithms to select the best embryo(s) for transfer. We then replace the embryo(s) into the womb two to five days later.
Any remaining viable good quality embryo that we do not transfer during the treatment cycle may be frozen (cryopreserved). We’ll keep them in storage in an embryo laboratory for potential future use. We can keep the embryos in storage for several years without any harm.
You’ll then take a pregnancy test. If we are successful, you will attend for pregnancy scan a few weeks later. If we are unsuccessful, we’ll offer you a follow-up appointment. Then, we can discuss your treatment and our future management plan regarding your infertility.

Embryologist transferring egg to a special culture media (selective focus)