I’ve come to realize that although there can be some disadvantages to telling people, there are certain advantages to telling people too. For one, you don’t get the endless questions about when you’re going to have a baby or asked if you’re trying every day. You’re friends and family will try to be sympathetic and understanding. However, you have to accept that no one can fully appreciate what IVF is like unless they’ve been through it themselves. Everyone has an opinion about IVF and wish so much information out there, people sometimes assume they know a lot about it.
We all grow up believing that we will be able to have a family when we are ready. It can come as a surprise to know how common it is for couples to have a hard time conceiving. 1 in 3 couples today suffer from infertility and will need some sort of fertility treatment. Whether it be help from fertility drug(s), monitored cycles, IUI’s or even IVF. Although a lot of people have heard of IVF due to the media (Jon & Kate + 8, Octo Mom, Angelina Jolie) a lot of people don’t truly understand how much time and emotion and money goes into it.
So What is IVF?
IVF is a form of assisted conception used to help people with fertility problems. The Initials stand for In Vitro Fertilization, and during IVF eggs are fertilized in the lab, rather then inside the female body. The term In Vitro means “in glass”, and so people often assume embryos are created in glass test tubes - which lead to the term “test-tube babies”. This however is not true. The egg, sperm and embryos are kept in petri dishes.
In simple terms, IVF involves taking eggs from a woman’s ovaries, and mixing them with the sperm in a dish. If a sperm breaks into the egg and fertilizes it, it will become an embryo. In some cases however the eggs are fertilized by using ICSI (intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection) Most people will be more familiar with ICSI then they think, as television and articles usually use images of ICSI to illustrate all kinds of stories about infertility. We’ve all seen them - those pictures of a hollow needle being pushed into an egg actually illustrate ICSI rather then normal IVF. Chris and I will be going the route of ICSI.
Each attempt at IVF is called a cycle, and drugs are used as part of the treatment to allow doctors to take control of your hormones in order to produce more then one egg…many more. You are monitored very closely from the first day of your period until you are ready for egg retrieval. The egg retrieval is not a pleasant procedure. Some women are put out while others are just heavily medicated for pain management.
Using an internal ultrasound they attach a needle which pokes through the wall of the vagina (ouch) in able to reach to ovaries. (your ovaries are located directly behind the vagina) They then use a vaccum type instrument that sucks the eggs out of the follicles and into a test tube. The Ebryologist will then take the contents of the test tube and view it under a microscope. He will remove the mature eggs and discard the rest.
Once the ICSI eggs have been injected with sperm, they will be left to fertilize. They have to be kept in the correct conditions for this to happen and the incubators used to store them are maintained at body temperature. The level of carbon dioxide in the air is controlled along with the humidity. The embryos will then divide (grow) in the incubator for 3-5 days. Our clinic (and most others) encourage patients to leave the embryos for five days, until they have reached the next level of development which is called BLASTOCYSTS. By day 4 the embryos have been dividing more rapidly and may contain anywhere from 10 to 30 cells. Embryos quite often stop growing at this stage, but if they continue developing for one more day, they begin to look very different. Instead of an evenly divided cell formation, the embryo will have a fluid cavity containing a lump of cells called the “inner cell mass”, which is the part that will grow into a baby. Pregnancy rates are higher after blastocyst transfer, as the embryos have already gone through a number of crucial stages of development.
During the embryo transfer the embryologist will get the embryos ready. This is done at the very last minute, so that the embryos spend as little time as possible out of the incubator. At this point you will be given the chance to see your embryos on the screen. I can only imagine just how surreal it will be to be able to see your baby(s) at the embryo stage. crazy! The embryos are stored in individual droplets of liquid which is then drawn up into a catheter. The doctor will insert the catheter into the vagina and up through the cervix. When is it in the right place, they squirt the embryos into the womb.
The Two Week Wait!
I am dreading this!!! From what I have read and from experiencing this when we did our IUI’s I can honestly this is probably the hardest part of the cycle. Constantly wondering if it worked and worrying about what you should or shouldn’t do. I kind of wish I could just go to sleep for these two weeks and wake up when it is time to take the pregnancy test.
Anyways that is my lamens terms of explaining the process of IVF. I could probably write a book and go into more detail about all the little appointments in between, daily ultrasounds, injections and the roller coaster ride you take with your emotions.
I just wanted to get it out there for some of my readers who know about IVF but don’t quite understand what really happens.
OH and thank you SO much for all the wonderful comments yesterday. I was so touched by all of the support and positive messages. I will be doing more videos once we start the whole procedure. I have been inspired by a few of you and love the idea of doing an injection on video and showing your true emotions and thoughts. :)
Love to you all!
XOX
~*A
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