Your Journey

At your initial appointment after referral from your consultant, our fertility specialist will review your medical history and all previous recent investigations and treatments and will provide preliminary advice about your treatment options.

Once the mode of your treatment has been planned depending upon your fertility profile, our IVF coordinator gives you the medication you need, explains the treatment cycle and TVS timeline, and shows you how to self-administer the IVF-M injections. We recommend both you and your partner to attend this appointment.

Throughout your cycle, possible regular blood tests measure your hormone levels and ultrasounds measure the size and number of your ovarian follicles. This also helps us determine the appropriate time for egg collection. All your ultrasound tests are conducted by our IVF Specialists, and are included as part of your treatment costs.

Egg collection is undertaken in day surgery, usually under ultrasound guidance. Most women prefer a light general anaesthetic, but you can have a local anaesthetic with sedation if you prefer. You will be at the hospital for about a day and will need someone to drive you home afterwards. Make sure you can take the rest of the day off work.

On the morning of your egg collection your partner will need to provide a fresh semen (sperm) sample, so we can immediately fertilise your eggs

The egg and sperm are then placed in individual incubators at 37 degrees to mimic the temperature of the human body. The next day, scientists will examine the eggs to determine if fertilisation has occurred, and will call you to advise you of the development of the embryos

Any extra embryos not used during a treatment cycle that are suitable for freezing can be stored for the future with extra cost.

You meet again with one of our fertility specialists, confirm your treatment plan, have any questions answered and sign the relevant consent forms. Discuss any complementary medicines you are taking now, as these may interfere with your treatment.

IVF-M is administered through a sterile micro needle, stimulating your ovaries to produce more eggs than usual. We have a higher chance of achieving fertilisation and pregnancy when we can collect more eggs.

Once you have the optimum number and size of follicles, we plan your egg collection. You’ll have a trigger injection dose of IVF-C in the evening, and the operation for egg collection will occur 36 to 38 hours later. The IVF-C injection replaces the natural Luteinising Hormone in the body and ‘triggers’ or instigates ovulation.

Collected eggs are taken to the laboratory and placed in culture medium to prepare them for fertilisation later that day. In IVF, prepared sperm and eggs are placed together in a dish where fertilisation occurs. In ICSI, an individual sperm is selected by a highly experienced embryologist, and, under very delicate microscopic control, the egg is injected with this single sperm

Embryo transfer is a simple day surgery procedure and usually takes place five days after the egg collection. The embryos are transferred into the uterus through a very fine catheter passed through the cervix, a procedure similar to a pap smear. In some cases we may recommend transferring embryos earlier.

You would be required to have a blood test for bHCG two weeks after the embryo transfer. Occasionally, women can still have a period despite being pregnant, so this blood test will occur even if your period has commenced. We do not recommend the use of urinary pregnancy test kits, as the hormone medication given throughout treatment could produce an incorrect reading. If the pregnancy test is positive, we will arrange an ultrasound scan approximately three weeks later.