I wrote this article as a sort of “IVF for beginners.” Even if you’ve been through IVF before, reading this may help you understand why we do what we do.

What is IVF? IVF is a type of treatment that involves taking eggs from a woman’s body, creating embryos with sperm and putting embryos into a woman’s uterus. That sounds kind of complicated, I know. I’m going to break it down in the simplest terms possible.

IVF stands for in vitro fertilization. It means fertilization outside of the body or in a controlled environment. In vitro = within the glass (in Latin).

Every woman has a set number of eggs that she can potentially ovulate every month. We ovulate 1 and the rest die. You can never use them again. Every woman’s “potential” number of eggs that she can ovulate declines as she ages. This number Read the rest of this entry »

Most would think that the answer to the question above should be yes but researchers have recently found that the answer is no – IVF conceived twins are not at higher risk for prematurity compared to spontaneously conceived twins.

Millions of healthy IVF offspring have been born which has proven the safety of this medical technique. Researchers have recently reported in the December 2009 edition of Fertility and Sterility, by Weghofer et al, that when you compare women of the same age with the same risk factors that the IVF twin pregnancies don’t have a higher chance of delivering prematurely.

There are several factors that can increase your chances of delivering prematurely: smoking habits and history of prior preterm birth are just a couple of them.

My recommendation: talk to your doctor about the risks associated with twin pregnancies. Ask your doctor what your personal risk factors are and how you will be monitored during the pregnancy. Many doctors like to measure the length of your cervix through the first trimester followed by growth scans (ultrasound to measure the weight of the babies) in the second and third trimester along with monitoring the fetal heart beats and amniotic fluid in the third trimester.

You just had your first visit with your infertility doc to talk about a plan.

She rattles off the following:

“you can either do OI or COH and it’s up to you if you want to do an IUI. But I would do an HSG in this cycle before your ART treatment. During the treatment, we will do scans to make sure your ovaries are responding the way we want them to and after we trigger you with HCG we will do your IUI. Then check a UPT 14 days after your IUI. And no need to do BBT or OPK during treatment but some women do. We can also move right to IVF with ICSI. But given your story – don’t recommend PGS for you.”
Got that?
Well if you didn’t, I’m going to break it down for you.

When you do infertility treatments you can do anything from take pills to shots just below your skin. In the “old days” the shots were given in the muscle and very painful. Not so anymore. Sub-q is how we refer to the location where the shots are given now – just below the skin.

Let’s define some terms that you may hear in the infertility clinic:

1. OI = ovulation induction. Usually done with pills such as Clomid or Clomiphene citrate. You may see: “CC” on your paperwork. It all means the same thing. Some docs use Femara which is in a family of medications called aromatase inhibitors. You may see “AI” on your paperwork.

2. COH= controlled ovarian hyperstimulation. This usually refers to taking injectable medications such as the hormones FSH in combination with LH or alone. Read the rest of this entry »