IVF Process & Timeline (Video Transcript)

One of the commonest questions I get asked regarding IVF cycle is "How long is that cycle".

Well, it depends on the clinic; it depends on your needs; it depends on the protocol to which you're assigned; but anything from about four to six weeks.

You may be down regulated with the pill for a couple of weeks before starting IVF proper which needs about 10 to 12 days of stimulating the ovaries to mature inside the follicles anything up to about a Year's worth of eggs in one cycle.

Then after a trigger shot 36 hours later the eggs are retrieved under light sedation takes about 15 minutes or so and you rest for an hour or so afterwards and then go home. You are good to go back to work when you feel ready.

Then your eggs are introduced to the sperm and hopefully fertilized and then they are allowed to grow and develop for five days to blast assist stage at which time you will come in for your transfer of a single blastocyst and this again takes about 15-20 minutes and you rest after this and you can go back to work whenever you feel ready.

Some people like to take a little bit of time off. Others enjoy going back to work and staying in that routine. It helps past that time. That we know as the two-week waiting period during which you're not really advised to test for pregnancy because it is too soon there's too many hormone sloshing around your system that can cloud the issue.

So the two-week wait can feel quite fraught. You are waiting and wondering and it's good to be occupied.

Then, if you have achieved pregnancy you will sign up for obstetric care and you will be checking that your HCG is doubling nicely with your own GP and, if there's any support that continues as well.

If IVF has not been successful, there is a debrief visit about two weeks afterwards to perhaps discuss what may have gone wrong, what might not have worked and what may be done next time and different options.

I hope this clarifies an idea of the timeline of your IVF.