Dr.Manish Banker takes you inside the IVF lab and to show you the IVF process in detail. IVF or In Vitro Fertilisation procedure is the process by which the egg is collected from a woman’s body and fused with sperm. This fertilised egg, which is called the embryo is then placed either back in the woman’s uterus or can be preserved until the couple is ready.

In preparation for an IVF process, the lab is made ready at least two days before.

Sperm collection
The sperm is first collected and processed to find out which ones are healthier and more motile. In case there are some difficulties on the day of IVF in the collection of the sperm, it is possible to give in the sample a few days prior. If the samples are collected a few days in advance, they are frozen and stored until the day of fusion.

Egg retrieval
The eggs are retrieved in an operation theatre adjacent to the laboratory. Eggs develop in follicles where the eggs are submerged in follicular liquid. These eggs are retrieved along with the liquid and transferred into test tubes. They are then passed on to the lab where they are magnified under a microscope. After being identified, they are then put into a petri dish and transferred into an incubator, where they remain in a protected atmosphere.

Insemination
The next process, in vitro insemination, can be done either through the conventional way or by ICSI. In ICSI, the egg and the sperm are kept in a cultured media inside an incubator, leaving the sperm to enter the egg and fuse on its own. ICSI requires the cells surrounding the egg to be removed and a needle to inject the sperm into the cytoplasm of the egg under a micromanipulator. Although both the methods have the same success rate, it is the factors regarding the sperm, the egg, and the couple that determines which method to adopt. After this, they are placed in an incubator for further culture.

Fertilization
In the next 16 to 18 hours, the eggs are checked for fertilization. If the eggs have fertilized, there will only be a single nucleus in the embryo. At periodic intervals, the progress of the embryo is observed. After 5-6 days, the embryo enters a stage called blastocyst where it is ready to be put into the uterus. One or two embryos are placed in the uterus and the other mature blastocysts are frozen and kept for further pregnancies.

There are also other methods in the in vitro fertilization procedure such as laser-assisted hatching or embryo biopsy. For the total of eight days that the process involves, the entire embryology team works round the clock to ensure that the best quality service is provided.

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