How does in vitro fertilization work and what are the potential risks involved?
Women are taught to take the hormone injections, sometimes at a higher dose, and they are brought into the clinic for monitoring through blood tests and ultrasounds. Rather than doing the insemination after a week or two, a retrieval is done which means removing the eggs from the ovary using a needle under anesthesia through the vagina, so there is no cutting involved even though it is considered a minor surgical procedure. The eggs and sperm are mixed together the same day. The next day we look at the eggs to see how any are fertilized, and a few days later we put the embryos back into the woman’s uterus (which does not require anesthesia). There are two ways to fertilize eggs: one is to let the sperm swim into the eggs, and the second is to pick up the sperm and inject into the eggs which is called ICSY – intercytoplasmic sperm injection. The second treatment is used when the sperm count is low. Risks are related to three things: the drugs, the procedure itself, and the potential lon
