Becoming parents with IVF
About IVF
IVF is a way of bringing human eggs and sperm together outside the human body. The aim is to fertilise the eggs and create an embryo. IVF involves many steps, which take several weeks to complete.
If you are interested in IVF, the first step is to talk with your family doctor, who can give you some basic information about it and refer you to a specialist. You might also consider speaking to a specialist fertility counsellor about the process and journey of IVF.
These are the main steps in the IVF process:
- Ovary stimulation: if you are a woman having IVF treatment, you need to take hormones to stimulate your ovaries so that you make more than one egg per menstrual cycle.
- Collection: healthy eggs and sperm are collected from you and your partner. Sometimes you might use a sperm or egg donor, depending on your circumstances. You will need to go to hospital and have a short procedure to have your eggs collected.
- Fertilisation: the eggs and sperm are mixed using special equipment in a laboratory. If the sperm fertilises the egg, an embryo starts to grow.
- Embryo transfer: the embryo is put into the uterus during a short procedure in hospital. This is usually five days after the egg collection.
- Pregnancy test: the last step is a pregnancy test. This is done with a blood test around two weeks after the embryo transfer.
Chances of success with IVF
Your chances of falling pregnant with IVF depend on many things, including your age and health. Some women go through many rounds of IVF before they fall pregnant. For some women, IVF does not work at all.
Costs
IVF can be quite expensive. Make sure you speak to your doctor or clinic about costs before you start any treatment. Different clinics might charge different prices for treatment.
Twins used to be very common in IVF pregnancies, because the process usually involved transferring at least two embryos. Today it is usual to transfer just a single embryo in each round of IVF.
Your feelings about IVF
If you have decided to try IVF, you might have been trying for a baby for quite a while. You might already be feeling frustrated and worried.
It is hard not to get your hopes up about falling pregnant with IVF, although you might try to tell yourself not to get too excited. If IVF is not successful in the first round, it is natural to feel disappointed. Your feelings can be even more complicated if you have gone through several rounds of IVF. You might start to wonder whether it is going to happen for you.
Your feelings during IVF treatment might be affected by the hormones that you have to take, which can make you feel more emotional than usual. Some parts of the treatment might affect the way you feel about your body. And some parts might leave you feeling physically uncomfortable, which can affect your emotions too.
The costs of IVF might cause you stress, especially if you have gone through several rounds of IVF already.
For all of these reasons, IVF can be a challenging experience.
Anyone who has been through the experience of infertility and then IVF will tell you it is an experience filled with emotional ups and downs, anxiety, waiting and unpleasant medical treatment that involves lots of hormone treatment. It really makes you appreciate what a miracle conception is.
– Mother of one
Help and support for people using IVF
If you are feeling stress or anxiety, this is normal during IVF treatment. But you do not have to deal with it by yourself. Try talking to a trusted friend or family member about how you are feeling. It is also a very good idea to speak with your doctor, who can help you get the support you need.
If you are going through IVF, it is important to look after your physical health with plenty of exercise, healthy food and rest. If you feel physically well, you will be able to cope better with stress.
The IVF experience can sometimes put a strain on your relationship with your partner. It is important to keep talking and listening to each other as you go through the experience or seek counselling.
When you have an IVF baby
Looking after a newborn is hard work. But if you are a new parent with a baby conceived through IVF, you might feel that you cannot complain, and that you should just be grateful for having the baby you have always wanted.
It is always okay to ask for help when you need it, and there are lots of people who can help you, including your doctor.
Read more about getting support for parenting.
There are so many hurdles with IVF – you have to have good eggs, enough of them, they must be fertilised successfully, then they must implant. Those weeks dragged by, none more than the dreaded two-week wait after the embryo had been implanted. All the while we were gearing ourselves up for the worst at every stage, protecting ourselves so we would not fall too hard if things didn’t work out.
– Mother of one
