At the time of retrieval, eggs and follicular fluid are collected in a plastic tube.
The tubes are handed off to the embryology lab where the fluid is inspected for eggs.
The semen is collected and the sperm prepped for insemination.
Linda Hoover, our embryology lab director will take good care of your eggs and subsequent embryos.
This is what a mature egg (oocyte) looks like.
If we anticipate a problem with fertilization (such as poor sperm quality) we will do ICSI, where a sperm is injected into the egg.
ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection) requires a special microscope set-up.
The eggs and sperm are placed in a controlled enviromental in the incubator.
Air quality is very important for IVF success. We use redundant filtration systems to enhanse pregnancy rates.
The next morning the fertilized egg will show 2 pronuclei, one from each partner.
After 2 more days in the incubator, they will divide to 5-8 cells are are ready for transfer.
In some patients, we will grow the embryos out for an additional 2 days to the blastocyst stage.
We strongly encourage our patients freeze left over embryos for later use. This requires a computerized freezing machine.
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At the time of retrieval, eggs and follicular fluid are collected in a plastic tube.