Egg retrieval is both one of the most critical and one of the most challenging phases in IVF therapy. An ideal egg collection should yield the most unharmed eggs possible. From midnight, the night before your surgery, don’t eat or drink anything. Before entering, you should remove makeup, nail paint, jewelry, and contact lenses. You will be examined by the cardiology and anesthesia teams before proceeding to the operating room, and you will be asked to sign the necessary consent documents. The egg collecting process is a day case operation that takes 20–30 minutes under minimal sedation. The fluid in the follicles of each ovary is aspirated, and the eggs are collected using a tiny needle under ultrasound supervision.

You will be given antibiotics and painkillers after the surgery, and you will be brought to a recovery room to relax for around 2-3 hours. You will be free to leave the clinic after you are completely awake and able to eat, drink, and pass urine. You should arrange for someone to drive you home and refrain from driving for at least 24 hours.

If a male partner provides the sperm, it is usually obtained the morning of the egg retrieval by ejaculation into a sterile cup. Frozen sperm or sperm from a donor can also be utilized. The embryology lab is where the third main phase of fertility therapy occurs. The eggs and sperm will be ready for fertilisation at this moment. The eggs and sperm are incorporated into a culture plate and cultured overnight to allow for fertilisation and the formation of embryos. When the eggs are exposed to the sperm, numerous sperm will adhere to the egg, but only one sperm will usually penetrate each egg, much like in a spontaneous conception.

Fertilisation is the term for this procedure. There are generally two methods of fertilisation. If sperm quality is an issue, an IVF procedure known as ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection) is likely recommended to achieve fertilisation. It is the direct injection of a single sperm chosen by embryologists into the egg. Following fertilisation, the embryos are cultivated in the lab under ideal circumstances and nourished in a nutritive media that simulates the inside environment of a fallopian tube (where early embryonic development happens naturally) for 3-5 days or until they reach the cleavage or blastocyst stage. The embryos usually split into four to eight cells two to three days following the egg harvest. They continue to grow after that, reaching the “blastocyst stage” on day 5. The embryos are then graded using a precise grading method, allowing us to choose the best embryo(s) for transfer.

If just a few embryos are available, we will plan the embryo transfer on the 2nd or 3rd day after the egg collection. Furthermore, embryos that are not suitable for transfer can also be frozen under most circumstances. Freezing the top-quality blastocysts increases their likelihood of survival in the freeze/thaw process (>90%).

The embryo transfer is the final stage in IVF therapy. The embryos are put into a thin catheter, gently pushed through the cervix, and are ready to be transferred to the woman’s uterus after early development in the lab, i.e., Day 3 or 5. Embryos are then offloaded into the endometrial lining of the uterus for implantation and development. This transfer is entirely painless. We can freeze the leftover embryos for future use. Your age, past reproductive history, and the quality of your embryos will all influence the number of embryos physicians will transfer to you. They always follow the guidelines set forth by the Greek National Authority for Assisted Reproduction, which limits the number of embryos that can be transferred. Doctors, will take images of your embryos and display them on a screen via a webcam we’ve set up in our lab.

The days following the embryo transfer are critical for the embryo’s implantation. As a result, our experts keep a constant eye on you to detect even little changes in your hormone levels, which might have a detrimental impact if left untreated. During that period, you will be taking progesterone supplements via different routes of administration as per your convenience to strengthen the uterine lining. Consequently, medications are often modified and matched to your body’s needs to encourage embryo implantation.

After the egg harvest, a pregnancy test will be performed 15 days later. The frequent monitoring of your pregnancy hormone levels to guarantee appropriate levels and the progesterone medication are both continued in the case of a positive pregnancy test. An ultrasound scan is typically done 2-3 weeks later to confirm the pregnancy’s viability. Throughout the pregnancy, clinics and the fertility2greece team will communicate with our expecting patients, often changing their medication and offering guidance and assistance.

Unfortunately, suppose your pregnancy test is negative. Remember: Never give up! In that case, we will schedule an online meeting or face-to-face follow-up session with one of our experts to go over the specifics of your treatment, receive answers to your concerns, and obtain advice on the best way of how to proceed.