IVF (In Vitro Fertilization)
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The IVF Procedure & The Cost Of IVF
In vitro fertilization (IVF) is a method of assisted reproduction that offers infertile couples a chance to have a child who is biologically related to them. More than 250,000 babies have been born as a result of using the IVF procedure and it is now recognized worldwide as an established treatment for infertility.
With IVF, a man's sperm and the woman's egg are combined in a laboratory dish, where fertilization occurs. The resulting embryo is then transferred to the woman's uterus (womb) to implant and develop naturally. Usually, 2-4 embryos are placed in the woman's uterus at one time. Each attempt is called a cycle, and the cost of IVF per cycle is around $12,000.
The full IVF procedure is as follows:
The woman may be given certain drugs (hormones) to stimulate her ovaries to produce several eggs. A surgeon then inserts a needle through the vagina into the woman's ovary to remove the eggs. General anesthesia is not required for this part of the procedure, but the woman may be given some sedating medication.
At the same time, the man provides a semen sample. He is asked not to have sexual intercourse for a few days before the eggs are retrieved from the woman and before he produces a semen sample (usually by masturbation). The sperm are separated from the semen in a laboratory procedure.
The sperm are combined in the laboratory dish with the eggs. About 18 hours after this fertilization procedure, it is possible to determine if the egg or eggs have been fertilized and have begun to grow as embryos. If they have, they are incubated and observed over the next 2-3 days or longer. The doctor then transfers the embryos into the woman's uterus through the cervix with a catheter (a long slender tube).
She is then given certain hormones for the next 2 weeks. If the implantation works (the egg or eggs attach to the uterine wall and grow), a standard pregnancy test result will show as positive.
The pregnancy success rate of the IVF procedure is 37% among women younger than 35 years, 28% for those aged 36-39 years and 13% in those older than 40 years. Therefore the total cost of IVF is normally more than $25,000, as a minority of couples succeed at their first attempt.
As a final point, studies have shown that children born as a result of the IVF procedure are as healthy as those born naturally. The only major complication comes in the risk of multiple births, with the likelihood of twins or triplets being noticeably higher when using IVF.