At Fertility Center MX®, over 2,000 babies have been conceived using this technique. In-vitro fertilization (IVF) is a technique where the sperm and egg are fertilized in an environment outside the body. Many couples around the world have used this method, and now FCMX is putting it within your reach. IVF is a multi-disciplinary process in which we will harvest the couples’ sperm and eggs in order to fertilize them in our state of the art laboratory.
We will closely monitor your progress from day 1 so that this potentially confusing process, is simplified so that you are in total understanding with the medical staff.
We also have a 24-hour, toll-free number for you to call in case of emergent questions.
Who is a suitable candidate?
Women suffering from general infertility issues are usually good candidates. Specifically, if you suffer from narrow fallopian tubes, increased adhesions due to a previous surgery, or endometriosis, you are considered a good candidate for IVF. Also, males with infertility issues make IVF a suitable infertility treatment, giving you a legitimate opportunity to become pregnant.
Here is a simplified version of the IVF multi-step process
- 1. Medical Evaluation Comprised
- 2. Hormonal Stimulation
- 3. Observation
- 4. “Boost”
- 5. Egg Extraction
- 6. Sperm Collection
- 7. Incubation
- 8. Transfer of Embryo into Uterus
- 9. Observation
- Detailed medical history
- General gynecological exploration including cytology
- Extensive blood work
- Study of Hormonal Panel
- Ultrasound
- Hysterosalpingogram (if needed)
- Uterine artery Doppler (select cases)
- Any other medical studies merited
The basis of a complete medical evaluation is to be able to give you tell you how good of a candidate you are. In addition, it will allow us to give you realistic expectations of the whole process. This part of the IVF process is extremely important. We ask that you provide us with as much medical records as possible, so that we have a baseline understanding of your overall health.
Once you have had a thorough assessment by our physicians and staff, the next step is to stimulate the ovaries in order to ensure that we have complete control of your hormonal cycle. This will also allow your ovaries to produce a greatly increased quantity of eggs. This will also give us a batch of ‘good quality’ eggs to work with, in the following steps of the process.
Once we stimulate your ovaries, we will keep you under close observation in order to ensure that your eggs are developing well. We will perform ultrasound studies in order to determine when you are about to ovulate. If necessary, we will also perform hormonal studies in the lab, in order to check for certain parameters.
You may be eligible to receive a medication 1 or 2 days prior to ovulation in order to ensure that the majority of your eggs mature well enough for a successful extraction.
Under a light sedation, we will use our state of the art equipment to collect your eggs by guided puncture of your ovaries. This is done using the latest technique in vaginal ultrasound that will allow us to be as efficient as possible, and will give you the GREATEST possibilities to conceive a child.
The same day that you have your egg extraction, your partner or a donor will be instructed to deposit a sperm sample that our staff will keep under rigorous watch in order to keep the sample as viable as possible. The latter is achieved in our lab via a rigorous selection of only the healthiest sperm in the sample.
Once we isolate your eggs and your partner’s sperm, we will put them in a device that has a special media (liquid) that mimics the human body environment. This sample will be placed in a specialized incubator that is under rigorous control. Our embryology team will monitor the sample hours later in order to check and see if fertilization has occurred.
Once we have successfully achieved fertilization, and the embryo is at the 8 cell division stage, we will take you back into the OR and you will be positioned in a manner very similar to a ‘pap-smear’ visit. You may or may not be placed under light sedation, and with our cutting-edge equipment, we will transfer the fertilized embryo into your uterus.
We will monitor you very closely the next couple of hours and we will then proceed to perform pregnancy tests in order to check for human chorionic gonadotropin (or hCG), also known as the ‘pregnancy hormone’.
The first test will be performed 13 days after embryonic transfer.
