In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is a form of assisted reproductive technology. This wonder of modern medicine enables couples facing fertility challenges to have children. It also gives the opportunity for single individuals to become parents with a donor egg or sperm.
IVF is a procedure used to combine your and your partner’s egg and sperm in a specialised laboratory. The natural process of sperm fertilising an egg is actually quite difficult – sperm need to navigate the female reproductive system to reach the egg in the fallopian tube before attaching to and penetrating through the egg’s outer membrane to create an embryo. Timing also plays a big part – once ovulation occurs, the egg remains available only for 12 to 24 hours and must be fertilised by a sperm cell during that time if you’re to conceive.
IVF helps this process along when various factors in the male or female body do not allow for this to naturally happen. After your consultation and testing, Mark will discuss with you whether he believes IVF offers the best chance of a successful pregnancy. Once you’ve made your decision, treatment for the female partner begins:
You will be shown how to administer follicle-stimulating hormone injections at home. This prompts your ovaries to develop a higher than usual number of follicles.
Guided by blood tests and ultrasound scans, at the right time you will have a trigger injection. This injection triggers the final maturation of eggs contained within the ovary follicles.
Egg collection is performed as a day procedure under anaesthetic. This simple procedure uses a fine needle guided by ultrasound to draw the eggs out from the ovary.
Using sperm provided by your partner (or a donor), your eggs will be fertilised in a specialised laboratory environment.
The embryos are developed for five days in the lab before being placed in your uterus to continue growing. This is a quick procedure that doesn’t typically require anaesthesia. Prior to the transfer, you may wish to consider genetic testing on the embryos.
11 days after the embryo transfer, you will have a pregnancy blood test. The waiting is the hardest part!
Any suitable embryos that weren’t transferred can be safely frozen if you choose to proceed with IVF again to grow your family in the future.
With decades of experience, Mark specialises in complex IVF cases and welcomes requests for a second opinion. If you have previously undergone unsuccessful IVF cycles or if you’ve recently been recommended IVF but want reassurance this is the right choice, he can provide his expert opinion on your situation.
Seeing another fertility specialist for a second opinion on IVF may uncover additional factors or considerations that were overlooked the first time or simply provide you with an alternative treatment option. Mark will assess your test results and records of previous IVF cycles and may organise further testing if he believes the results will be useful.
Did you know that 1 in 18 babies born in Australia are through IVF? Though IVF has helped tens of thousands of people realise their dreams of parenthood, it may not be the most suitable fertility treatment for everyone. If Mark’s experience and expertise means he does not recommend IVF for you, he will still be able to offer an alternative fertility treatment. These can include:
Intrauterine insemination
Also known as artificial insemination, IUI is useful for aiding conception in women with irregular periods or for men with mild sperm abnormalities. This process involves inserting the sperm directly into the uterus with a medical procedure rather than relying on sperm swimming to the egg via normal intercourse. The fertilisation procedure is timed with blood tests and ultrasound scans so that insemination occurs at the optimal moment when the egg is available.
Intracytoplasmic sperm injection
ICSI is a great option for couples where male infertility is the predominant factor. By selecting a sperm cell free from poor motility, abnormal shape or size, and injecting it directly into the egg, ICSI improves your chances of pregnancy and a healthy birth.
Third-party reproduction
Third-party assisted reproduction includes using a donor egg, sperm, or embryo to achieve a pregnancy. This approach could be beneficial for couples and individuals who are unable to conceive naturally, have experienced recurrent miscarriages, or who have a known inheritable condition that may be passed on to the baby. Surrogacy is also an option, which involves another person carrying the pregnancy through to birth using eggs and/or sperm from you and/or your partner, or from a donor.
Mark is part of the Genea network of world-leading fertility clinics. Due to Genea’s commitment to innovation and cutting-edge reproductive medicine, he is proud to offer IVF success rates that are consistently above the national average.
Dr Mark Livingstone is available for consultation via telehealth or in-person appointments. Contact us today to get started.
