If you’re about to undergo an in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) journey or have just completed an egg retrieval, you’re probably feeling a mix of excitement, hope, and a little nervousness. It’s not every day that you hand over your eggs (or your partner’s sperm) and then wait, sometimes for days, for magic to happen. Inside the IVF lab, behind the scenes, that’s where the real work begins.
What happens after your egg retrieval?
Egg Quality Check
After you’ve gone through all the hormone injections, scans, and that big, intimidating egg retrieval procedure (which is really a very safe and simple procedure in the right hands), your eggs are finally here. But before any magic can happen, we need to check them. It’s like an important job interview, but for eggs.
As an embryologist, I examine each egg under a microscope, assessing its maturity and quality. Eggs can be in various stages of maturity. The mature ones are most likely to be fertilised. If we find a lot of immature eggs, it’s disappointing, but we push forward, knowing that in IVF, quality over quantity is the name of the game. Not every egg that’s retrieved is ready to meet sperm, and that’s where the journey begins.
Fertilisation Time
Once the eggs are ready, it’s time for the sperm to make its entrance. Depending on your clinic’s protocol, there are two main ways fertilisation happens:
- Conventional insemination: The sperm is simply placed with the eggs and left to do its thing. Picture it as a little sperm party with the eggs, with the hopes that the fastest swimmer makes the first move.
- ICSI (Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection): This is where the embryologist gets personal with the sperm. A single sperm is chosen, carefully injected into the egg, and voilà! That egg is now fertilised. If you’ve ever wondered about the fancy science behind IVF, this is one of those moments where it feels like a real-life lab experiment (and it’s a bit of a thrill).
As we watch the fertilisation process unfold, we’re looking for signs of fertilisation, like two distinct pronuclei (one from the egg, one from the sperm). It’s a tiny miracle, but it feels like a big one.
The Waiting Game Begins
Once we have fertilised eggs, they enter what I call the waiting room. During this phase, the embryos develop in a culture medium that mimics the natural environment inside the woman. In IVF, we want these embryos to develop as naturally as possible. You might be eager to know how many embryos made it, but trust me, we’re just as invested in watching them grow and divide into blastocysts (the stage before we transfer them back into your womb).
In the lab, we look at how the embryos divide. A good-quality embryo divides evenly, with no excessive fragmentation. It’s important to note here that not every embryo is destined to make it. And that’s okay. A good quality embryo may not always guarantee pregnancy, but we’ve made it through a significant hurdle. At this point, all you can do is wait—and sometimes, there’s not much to do but breathe.
The Embryo Transfer
Now comes the big day—the embryo transfer. If all goes well, we’ve got a few strong embryos to choose from, and the next step is transferring one or two of them into your uterus. This is where it feels like the real magic is happening. As an embryologist, we prepare the embryo (or embryos) for transfer, making sure everything is perfect. It’s a delicate process, like placing an important piece of art into its frame. One mistake ruins everything, but with careful hands and a steady heart, we make it happen. The transfer process is one of the most rewarding parts. The look on a patient’s face when they know their embryos are now “home” in their uterus is priceless.
Meanwhile, The Waiting Continues
After the transfer, it’s time for you to rest and pray. Yes, the same waiting game continues, but now, we’re hoping the conditions are just right for the embryo to implant and begin developing. In the lab, we’ve done everything we can to give it the best chance, and now it’s in the hands of nature to take the next steps.
You might feel anxious, and that’s okay. IVF is full of anxiety-ridden moments, but it’s also full of hope. It’s not over until we have the positive test. And even then, the journey continues.
IVF is a lot like baking. Think of the eggs as your flour, the sperm as your yeast, and the embryo as the finished cake. Sometimes, the ingredients come together perfectly. Sometimes, they don’t. But whether it’s a cake or an embryo, both require careful timing, the right conditions, and a little bit of patience.
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Featured Image by Tima Miroshnichenko for Pexels
