Invitro Fertilization IVF Consultation and Process

I went in with my mother-in-law to have a consultation about the next step in our journey to make a girl. Dr. Rosen was very patient with us, and allowed us to ask a lot of questions.

The per-cycle success rate at his practice is 65%. That takes in to account every woman with every issue.

It's a 5-week process, and it starts on the 2nd day after I get my period. I will go in and get a blood test and vaginal ultrasound (yes, while I'm on my period, yuck) and they will start me on birth control pills.

Throughout the 5 weeks I will be on birth control pills as well as 3 (I think?) different injectable hormones, including progesterone. All of these medications work together to create as many eggs as possible.

When the eggs are ripe I will go to their Redondo Beach location to have them removed. They do this surgically, and I will be under general anesthesia. They put my legs in stirrups high in the air, and then use a needle to puncture the vaginal wall and "suck out" the eggs from inside of the follicle sacs they are held in. The number of eggs they remove determines how much pain I'm going to be in. More eggs = more pain.

After they remove my eggs (and while I'm resting) Evan will give a semen sample.

They then take the healthy eggs and put them with the sperm. Hopefully a bunch will fertilize, but there are no guarantees. There is an additional option called ICSI, which is where they make a tiny "nick" in the side of the egg so that the sperm can penetrate easier. This is only necessary if the sperm is too weak to penetrate on its own. We won't really know if this is necessary until after we try the process once.

Hopefully a bunch of eggs have fertilized and turned into embryos. A lot of reproductive endocrinologists will transfer embryos when they are 3 days old, and so they usually transfer more than 2. My doctor transfers 5-day old embryos (referred to as blastocysts) that are already at least 16-cells in size. There is a greater chance that because they have made it to 5 days that they will implant, so they only put in two. If I'm not mistaken, I was told there would be a 50% chance of having twins.

So anyway, after the eggs are fertilized I go back in and the embryos are transferred to my uterus. Hopefully they do their thing, and I go back 11 days later for a blood test.