What you need to know before you do IVF

When you’re trying to conceive, in vitro fertilization (IVF) can bring you one step closer to getting pregnant, but the process can be challenging if you’re unsure what’s involved.

Making the decision to do IVF is a mixture of excitement and anxiety. On one hand, the procedure puts you a step closer to getting pregnant. On the other, not knowing what to expect and worrying about whether it will work or not is stressful.

One thing that you should prepare for is to put in a lot of time and work. IVF is a commitment that involves multiple doctor’s visits. Many women struggling with infertility are choosing IVF as an assisted conception method.

Essentially, the procedure involves extracting eggs from a woman’s ovaries, mixing them with sperm, and inserting them directly into the uterus. Given this unique method of conception, you may wonder how IVF pregnancy differs from natural pregnancy.

The fact is that the risks and complications are pretty similar. A pregnancy achieved through the assisted reproductive technology is not necessarily considered high risk. Also, babies born through IVF are not different from the babies born from natural conception.

In general, the symptoms and outcomes of IVF pregnancy resemble those of natural pregnancy. An understanding of the IVF process step-by-step is essential for not just success, but peace of mind.

For 10-12 days, you’ll take fertility medications (usually self-administered shots) to stimulate the ovaries to produce multiple eggs. During that time, you’ll have to go to the doctor’s office for bloodwork and ultrasounds almost every other day.

Once the stimulation phase is done, the doctor will remove the eggs from your ovaries ( usually under conscious sedation) and combine them with your partner’s sperm in a laboratory.

Three to five days after the egg retrieval, one or more embryos will be placed back into your uterus (any extras may be frozen for future IVF cycles). Two weeks later, you’ll return to the doctor for a blood pregnancy test to determine if the IVF worked.

Beforehand you should get your health in check. Achieve a healthy weight, limit alcohol intake, and quit tobacco and other substance to greatly improve your success rates. Also, try to get medical conditions like high blood pressure and diabetes under control before you attempt to get pregnant.

The IVF process isn’t cheap but it is affordable. The process allows couples suffering from infertility to have children of their own and it is relatively common but proper financial planning is key.

The cost of IVF depends on several different factors, like geographic location and egg type (fresh, frozen, or donor). This includes the procedure (retrieving eggs, inseminating them with sperm, and inserting them into the uterus), as well as ultrasounds, blood tests, embryo storage, anesthesia, and more.

What’s more, you must decide whether you want genetic testing, which screens for chromosomal defects. With this testing, doctors can choose the healthiest embryos of the batch to insert into your uterus. Genetic testing also allows you to see the sex of your baby; some clinics even let you choose the gender. If you opt for genetic testing, know that it can add to the overall IVF cost.

There are ways to make it more affordable. A single cycle of IVF (using your own eggs and your partner’s sperm) may require you to save up for it. Most insurance companies don’t cover for IVF in Nigeria.

Some fertility clinics offer options on IVF cycles or financial assistance.

Remember, you’ll be injected with hormones, so expect to feel more emotional during your IVF cycle. Minor physical side effects such as pressure, cramping or bloating in the pelvic area, breast tenderness, and discomfort from fertility injections may also occur.

In some cases, IVF can cause ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS), which occurs when the fertility drugs cause a woman to make too many eggs. Symptoms can include weight gain, severe pain or swelling in the abdomen, dizziness, shortness of breath, nausea, and vomiting. It normally resolves itself; however, if you experience these symptoms, contact your doctor immediately as it may degenerate if not well managed.

Research the fertility clinic beforehand, and make sure you trust them to handle your embryos. It should be clearly spelt out that IVF doesn’t guarantee you’ll get pregnant.

Unfortunately, IVF doesn’t work for everyone. Some people get pregnant the first time, others need to repeat the process a time or two, and some couples aren’t successful even after multiple attempts.

Whether or not IVF is successful depends mostly on your age. The IVF success rate if you are using your own eggs is 35 -45 percent if you are under age 35 and as low as 5 percent if you are over age 42.

But this doesn’t mean all hope is lost. If your odds of achieving pregnancy through IVF are low (or you’ve already tried a cycle or two unsuccessfully), there are other options to consider, including using donor eggs, donor embryos [from families who used IVF and donated their spare embryos after completing their family, or donor sperm.