In vitro fertilization (IVF) process begins by extracting eggs from female (wife) and collecting sperm sample from male (husband) and combing them in a laboratory setting. The egg and sperm meet in a controlled environment, and once the egg is fertilized it is planted in the female (wife’s) uterus.

We recommend IVF in cases where:

• Couples who have been unsuccessful with simpler treatments like iui
• Women with age-related infertility
• Women with low ovarian reserve
• Women with recurrent miscarriage
• Women or men who carry or have a family history of genetic defects
• Women with blocked or damaged fallopian tubes
• Women who are unable to ovulate
• Women with polycystic ovary syndrome (pcos)
• Women with endometriosis
• Men with poor sperm quality or quantity
• Couples with unexplained infertility

MCI IVF fertility specialist will review your history and advise accordingly.

Although IVF is considered a minor procedure as it does not require any incisions or stiches. However, you may experience some reactions to the fertility drugs given during the process. Some of these side effects are mild, such as mood changes, anxiety and headaches as the drugs effect the hormone levels in your body. Since the chemical balance is affected in your body you might notice some weight gain or bloating. Fertility drugs stimulate your ovaries to work overtime and produce multiple eggs and in rare cases this may result in (OHSS) ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, which can cause mild to severe symptoms.

IVF does not affect your body’s ability to get pregnant naturally. It is common for couples who undergo IVF to have their second baby through natural intercourse. IVF does not decrease their chance to have more children naturally in the future provided there is no major infertility issue.

Yes, age is inversely related to fertility. This means your fertility decreases as you age. This is specifically true for women. A woman’s fertility peaks in her early twenties, declining gradually by about 30, and steeply after age 35. This comes as a surprise to many modern women who feel young and energetic in their late 30’s and 40’s. The reason for this gradual decrease in fertility is because women are born with a finite egg reserve. With time the egg reserve and quality decreases which reduces your chance of pregnancy. By the time a woman reaches 40 her egg reserves is almost depleted.

Men continue to produce sperm throughout their reproductive lives and generally their fertility is only reduced slightly with age.

If you are planning to postpone having a child for personal or medical reasons, we recommend having your eggs and sperm frozen. It literally freezes your biological clock!

IVF is the more universally known term of treatment for infertility and stands for in-vitro fertilization. This basically involves the fertilization of a GROUP of oocytes (eggs) in a petri-dish with a few micro litres of washed and processed sperm.

ICSI stands for intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection and involves the injection of EACH oocyte (egg) with a SINGLE sperm selected by the embryologist. Embryologists select each sperm based on its morphology (how it looks) and its motility (how it moves). This manual selection of sperm allows patients with even exceptionally low sperm counts and poor sperm motility to get the best possible chance of fertilizing oocytes – a process that may have difficulty occurring naturally.

In theory, different types of patients require different forms of treatment. However, we at MCI IVF (along with many other clinics dealing with South-Asian populations in India, Nepal and Pakistan) have found better results after using ICSI so we exclusively use this line of treatment in our lab.

Following both IVF and ICSI, the process of embryo development and successive embryo transfer and/or freezing is the same. Embryologists will monitor the development of the embryos until the 5 th or 6 th day and select the best ones to transfer to the woman’s uterus or and/or freeze.

At MCI IVF, our experienced embryologists and fertility doctors would be happy to speak with you further to explain the IVF and ICSI process and how it can help you overcome your fertility issues and increase your chance of pregnancy.

Intracytoplasmic sperm injection, or ICSI, involves injecting the husband’s single live sperm directly into the centre of the wife’s egg. ICSI improves the chance of fertilization by 80%. ICSI is more effective than normal IVF and the technology evolved to achieve fertilization when male infertility is the issue or previous IVF cycles were not successful. ICSI overcomes m any of the barriers to fertilization and allows couples with little hope of achieving a successful pregnancy to obtain fertilized embryos.

The technique requires the female partner to undergo ovarian stimulation with the infertility medications so that many mature eggs develop. These eggs are then aspirated via the vagina using vaginal ultrasound and incubated under precise conditions in the embryology department. The semen sample is prepared by centrifuging or spinning the sperm cells via a special medium. This separates active sperm from most of the dead sperm. After that embryologist picks up the single active/live sperm in a glass needle and injects it directly into the egg.

There are no limits to the number of ICSI cycles you can have. Some couples have had more than ten ICSI cycles, while others have stopped after their first cycle. This decision is entirely up to the couple and the fertility specialists.

Yes, but it’s very rare. Although we always place the fertilized eggs back in the uterus, it may happen that an egg will move to a fallopian tube and begins to grow as an ectopic pregnancy.

IUI is generally the first procedure most couples are recommended in fertility treatment. This is because the procedure is affordable and uncomplicated to perform. In this process, washed sperms from the husband sample are deposited in the wife’s uterus around the time of ovulation, through a fine catheter inserted via the cervix into the uterus. This is generally done in case there is no pregnancy after natural intercourse, or the sperm count in the male partner is low (called oligospermia).

A pre-IUI workup is performed to make sure you are in good health to have a baby. We will take your blood sample to assess your hormone levels and perform an ultrasound to ensure that your uterus is ready to support a healthy pregnancy.