What is IVF?

• It’s an external technique used to help people with fertility issues have a baby
• Treatment involves your eggs being fertilised outside of your body, then embryos are implanted into the uterus
• Most people look into it after one year of trying to get pregnant with no success
• Can also be used to help prevent passing on genetic issues to a child
• One of the most common methods of artificial insemination 

In vitro fertilisation is a complex assisted reproductive treatment. It involves joining an egg with sperm in the laboratory – in vitro – in order to obtain good-quality embryos, which once transferred to the mother’s uterus can lead to a pregnancy.

To perform the procedure, it is necessary for the patient to undergo controlled hormonal stimulation to procure her eggs, which will later be fertilised in vitro in the laboratory and monitored for a few days whilst they develop. One of these embryos will then be transferred back to the womb and the rest will be frozen for future use.