Starting an In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) cycle is a significant step in your family-building journey.
Starting an In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) cycle is a significant step in your family-building journey. IVF is an assisted reproduction method where eggs and sperm are combined to create embryos in a lab.
Here is a supportive, step-by-step guide to the IVF roadmap at Twig:
Step 1: Preparation & Priming
This step happens in the months before your cycle starts.
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Personalized Plan: You’ll have an appointment with your fertility specialist to plan and review your personalized treatment plan.
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Priming Medications: Your physician may ask you to start medication to help prepare your ovaries for the upcoming stimulation. However your physician will discuss with you whether these medications are recommended.
Step 2: Contact Us on Your Day 1
When your period begins, you’ll report your Day 1 (the first day of full flow) to officially start your treatment cycle.
Step 3: Ovarian Stimulation & Cycle Monitoring
This phase typically lasts 8 to 13 days and involves stimulating your ovaries to produce multiple eggs.
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Injections: You will take daily injectable hormonal medications to stimulate your ovaries. You may be instructed to add a second medication a few days later to prevent early ovulation. Your nurse will teach you how to use them during your first visit.
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Monitoring: We will closely track your progress with blood work and internal ultrasounds (cycle monitoring) every few days. Most people require 4-5 visits during the course of ovarian stimulation.
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The Trigger: Once your follicles are ready, you will take trigger medications on a specific date and time to help them mature in preparation for the retrieval.
Step 4: Egg Retrieval
Exactly 36 hours after your trigger injections, one of our physicians will carefully retrieve your eggs.
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Procedure: We use an ultrasound to guide a needle gently through the top of the vagina into the ovaries. We use conscious sedation to ensure you are comfortable.
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Lab Hand-off: The retrieved eggs are immediately handed off to our in-house embryology lab to be counted and prepared for fertilization.
Step 5: Fertilization & Embryo Culture
Once retrieved, your eggs are immediately handed off to our embryologist to be assessed and frozen.
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Fertilization: A few hours after retrieval, the embryologist fertilizes the eggs with sperm, either through conventional IVF or ICSI.
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Culture: Over the next 5 to 7 days, the embryos are kept safe and monitored closely in our time-lapse incubator to track their development.
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Updates: You will receive regular updates from our embryology team about your embryos’ progress.
Step 6: Embryo Freezing, Transfer or Biopsy
Depending on your treatment plan, your next step will be one of the following:
Option A: Embryo Freezing Option B: Embryo Transfer Option C: Embryo Biopsy & Testing Freezing: Any fully developed embryos are frozen for future use. Fresh Transfer: Five days after the egg retrieval, an embryo is placed into the uterus under ultrasound guidance by one of our physicians.
Freezing: Any fully developed embryos that are not transferred are frozen for future use. Preimplantation Genetic Testing (PGT): If your treatment plan includes PGT, any fully developed embryos will be carefully biopsied before being frozen.
Results: Once results are ready, they are reviewed with you by one of Twig’s in-house genetic counsellors.
Ready to learn more? Click here to book a complimentary family building consult. No referral required.
