Are you having IVF treatment in mind for your family build up? If yes, you have made the right decision for yourself. It is, as in vitro fertilisation or IVF is the most effective assisted reproductive treatment for infertility in females. Still, you may have a query on the timeline, and your question could be How long does IVF take. You can get this query solved during the interaction with a fertility specialist at an IVF centre in Bangalore or in your local city.
In general, it could be anything between four to nine weeks based on your reproductive health conditions and the required treatment. However, you should know each step or process involved in IVF treatment before estimating a timeline for you.
The IVF treatment procedures start with your consultation with a doctor and finish with the pregnancy test. This entire process is one IVF cycle, and you may need to have more than one cycle. Have a close look at each procedure, which is briefly mentioned below:
The first week – First visit and consultations
Many of you face difficulties in selecting a fertility clinic and getting into the office of an IVF doctor. You need to make yourself ready to discuss your issues, worries, thinking, and planning. Visiting a clinic and being before a respective doctor is a courageous step for you. And it comes to you with numerous questions in your mind. Your first visit and consultation with the expert would cover:
- Initial consultation and discussion for knowing your concerns
- Recommendation of a few tests and screenings to detect the root cause
- Cost estimation and financial support available for one cycle or the entire treatment
2nd to the 4th week – Preparation
It is the phase in which your real treatment starts. And it contains:
- Pre-Treatment Preparation – In this phase, your doctor recommends a few tests. And you need to get those tests done at a lab. Common tests and screening can include – a blood panel, ultrasounds, screenings for STIs, semen analysis, and uterine evaluation.
- Start medication, especially birth control pills – In this step, the doctor prescribes a few medicines to regulate and monitor your menstrual cycle and prepare your ovaries. This phase can run from the 2nd week to the 4th week of your IVF treatment.
5th Week – Medication and monitoring the progress
You will have a beginning of a process of COH (Controlled Ovarian Hyperstimulation). In the clinic, your doctor will ask you to have an ultrasound for the evaluation of the ovaries and your uterus. In this phase, you will have to take fertility medications for around two weeks and monitor visits that could be 5 to 7. For monitoring the progress, you need to have:
- Blood tests
- Ultrasounds
7th Week – Stimulation, egg retrieval, and fertilization
Read More: https://articleft.com/
Your intake of fertility medicines for 10-12 days starts showing off that your follicles are in the mature stage. The doctor will ask you to have an ultrasound before 36 hours of egg retrieval. This phase is very crucial and may determine the success of your IVF treatment. The process involves:
- Egg retrieval – In it, the experts are very careful and make each possible step to minimise the risk.
- The fertilisation of eggs with sperm in the lab – the doctor may incorporate ICSI, PGD and PGS in the process
- Evaluation – The doctor evaluates the embryos for transfer within 3-6 days of fertilisation
- Embryo transfer – The fertility specialist transfers the embryo/s after 3-6 days of fertilisation. You can request your doctor to watch your embryo transfer live through ultrasound.
9th Week – Pregnancy test
Your IVF treatment is in the final stage. The doctor will ask you to have a pregnancy test after 12 days of embryo transfer. You will have another test for confirmation if your first pregnancy test result comes positive. The doctor will do it within a week of the first pregnancy test. After 2-3 weeks, you will be asked to have an ultrasound screening. And after that, you will have a gynaecologist or obstetrician for the care later on.
Conclusion
The post has explained an estimated clinical time for an IVF cycle. For you, it can be anything between four to nine weeks depending on your reproductive health issues and opted treatment method. You should always follow your doctor’s instructions for better results.
