Do you know what to expect once you contact a reproductive center about going through in vitro fertilization? This can be a scary step if you are struggling to conceive naturally, and especially if you have already been told that you will be unable to conceive a child naturally. If the infertility issues lie with your partner or you do not have a verified infertility problem affecting your eggs, there is a good chance that you could have a baby through natural birth with IVF.

For many women, it is important to bring a child into the world through natural childbirth. There is a sense of bonding and intense love that comes from carrying a child in your own body for ten months before bringing the into the world. If this is what is important to you as well, then you cannot give up on your dream to have children without visiting a reproductive center and at least considering in vitro fertilization.

Introduction to In Vitro Fertilization

The in vitro fertilization process involves collecting eggs from a woman and sperm from a man and fertilizing the eggs with the sperm outside of a woman’s body. This procedure hopefully leads to a fertilization which will then attach to the woman’s womb once placed back into her body. Many people use IVF because the male in the relationship does not have healthy sperm to conceive naturally, but that is not always the case.

For instance many same-sex couples will conceive by having donor sperm united with one woman’s eggs and then placed into one of the mother’s bodies. It is very common for a reproductive center to work with donated sperm for this procedure, whether the patient knows the donor or not.

What to Expect from IVF

You have to start the journey by making an appointment with a local reproductive center that offers in vitro fertilization. This is not something that you go in and do right away. The first appointment will be a simple consultation where a doctor analyzes your situation and determines whether you are best suited to in vitro fertilization, or if there may be other options open to you.

You may be encouraged to try to conceive naturally for a longer period of time, you may be given fertility testing, and you may be told right off that IVF could work for you. What happens in the reproductive center will be determined by your own body and the type of infertility you are working with. Write down all of your questions prior to going in for this procedure, and be prepared to talk about options for paying for the procedure if you decide to go through with it. You should find out whether your insurance will cover any of the procedure prior to going to this consultation.

Once you are approved for the procedure and decide it is the right move for you, the procedure will start with medication to stimulate ovulation. The medication will stimulate the release of your eggs, and hopefully you will release multiple eggs. In most cases, you want to work with as many eggs as possible so you have as many chances of conceiving as possible. It should now be obvious why so many people who go through with IVF end up with twins, triplets, or even seven to eight babies.

Once you have successfully ovulated, the reproductive center will go in quickly to harvest your eggs. It is important to time everything so the healthy sperm is available at the center when the eggs are ready to be fertilized. Once eggs and sperm are in the laboratory, the process of fertilization can be started. In order to encourage fertilization, the right environment is set up when combining the eggs and sperm.

The (hopefully) fertilized eggs are then placed back into your body and you will hopefully take a pregnancy test with good results in the near future. It is possible you can have extra eggs stored just in case your first round with IVF does not work or you want more children in the future.