Increasing the Odds of a Successful in Vitro Fertilization (IVF)

Increasing the odds of a successful in vitro fertilization (IVF)


Technology to help infertility is so advanced now that chances of successful IVF pregnancy are extremely good. Our twins were born of IVF 15 years ago and technology has since improved to a new level.

Blastocyst culture is the most advance infertility treatment which involves in vitro fertilization and embryo culture for 5 to 6 days until it reaches the blastocyst stage - a final stage of embryo that is ready to implant in the uterine wall to impregnate. The best embryos are selected and transfer into the uterine cavity after they have been analyzed for abnormal chromosome. The treatments would help tubal blockage, severe pelvic adhesion, endometriosis, male factor and unexplained infertility cases.

Traditional IVF is to implant embryo after rearing only 2-3 days externally into the intrauterine at the cleaving stage of only 4-8 cells. Blastocyst is a 5 days old embryo that is formed after the conception of egg and sperm. The embryo size before being embedded is 120-150 cells. It is made possible by the advanced environmental control in prolonging external embryo rearing. Embryo at Blastocyst stage can be implanted directly into the intrauterine, which gives a better chance of pregnancy.

IVF can be performed together with Testicular Sperm Extraction (TESE) and Intra Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) to achieve a higher pregnancy rate.

TESE is method where the semen is extracted from the testicles for cases where man is unable to produce sperm. The semen tube may be clogged or partially cut off (sterile). TESE is a minor and uncomplicated operation. A part of the testicle tissue is clipped off and needle is inserted to extract sperm. Local anesthetic or anti-suppressant is used for this simple operation.

Sperm is injected into the egg by ICSI process. ICSI is a direct injection of a single sperm into each egg. This is one way of conception for patients who have a few sperm or has no sufficient amount of sperms to penetrate the egg.

A typical IVF process would be as follow:

1. Drugs are given to cause "Super Ovulation" to produce multiple eggs.