Our IVF cycle explained

IVF can be confusing even for the people going through it so I am going to try my best to explain it to you all.


There are many different IVF cycles that you can do, different cycles use different methods and drugs.

The IVF cycle that we are doing is called an 'Antagonist ICSI Cycle'


The first day of my period is cycle day 1 (CD1)


FHS Injections:

From CD3 up til (and including) CD7 I will be injecting Puregon which contains FHS.

FHS is a synthetic hormone which stimulates development of ovarian follicles (the sac of fluid that contains the egg) the eggs are than collected from these follicles later on.


Stimulation Scan:

On CD8 I will have an internal scan to measure the endometrial thickness, size and number of follicles on each ovary.

The largest follicle will be identified and once that one reaches 12-14mm in size the doctor will order antagonist injections to begin.


If I have had a poor or over stimulated response to the FHS injections than the cycle may be cancelled.


Antagonist and Trigger Injections:

What is an antagonist injection?

Up until my scan I would not have had any drugs to stop me ovulating (releasing the egg naturally).

The antagonist injection works to prevent ovulation by suppressing my own natural production of Lustenising Hormone.

Once my follicles have reached 14mm than ovulation could occur naturally and therefore the antagonist injection is required to stop it.

I may have to take antagonist injections for one to four days up until the day of my trigger injection.


The role of the trigger injection is to trigger the final maturation of the eggs ready for my ovum pick up (OPU).

This injection is a one off injection and is usually given 37 hours before OPU is scheduled.


Ovum Pick Up (OPU):

One the day of OPU Johnny will have to give a fresh sperm sample and I will go in for the OPU procedure.

It is generally done in the morning and that actual procedure takes about 20 minutes depending on how many follicles there are.

I will be put under general anaesthetic.

The needle is passed through the vaginal wall into the ovary and one follicle is aspirated (sucked up, lol) into a test tube at a time.

The test tube containing the follicular fluid is then immediately passed to the adjacent Melbourne IVF laboratory and checked to ascertain whether it contains an egg.

This process continues until all the follicles seen on the ultrasound as aspirated, the same procedure is than carried out on the other ovary.


We are doing an ICSI cycle (IntraCytoplasmic Sperm Injection) , which means they will pick the best possible sperm they can and insert them directly into each egg (non ICSI cycles they just put them both in the dish and let the sperm do their thing of penetrating the egg). When the egg has been fertilised by the sperm it than becomes an embryo.

Two days after the they have created the embryos we will have an embryo transfer



Embryo Transfer (ET):

We will than go back to the same hospital where the OPU took place and have 1 embryo put back in.

The ET will take about 15 minutes and there is no preparation required.

Some women describe the ET as having the same amount of discomfort as a pap smear.

Following the ET I will than have 14 days of Luteal Phase Support


If we have been able to get more than one embryo the rest will be frozen (they can be frozen for years) in case we want/need to use them down the track.


Luteal Phase Support:

The Luteal Phase Support I will be using is called Crinone.

Crinone contains a natural progesterone (a hormone that is produced by the ovaries during the second half of the menstrual cycle).

Progesterone is needed to prepare the uterus for pregnancy and to help maintain the pregnancy until the placenta is developed - a process known as Luteal Phase Support.

Women who do not produce enough progesterone may have difficulties in becoming pregnant and may have a higher risk of miscarriage.



Pregnancy Test:

14 days after the embryo transfer I will have a pregnancy test to see if the IVF cycle has been successful or not.

Please keep your fingers crossed that we get a positive test :)



So that's it! It's amazing the technology we have available to us, we are very luck that we can access this type of medical assistance