Birth control pills when used appropriately can help the eggs to grow together during IVF allowing a more synchronized growth and help with scheduling the IVF cycle.

Follicles are the fluid filled sacs that contain the egg. At egg retrieval each sac is needled and the fluid aspirated along with the egg floating within the sac.

A human egg can be imagined like a chicken egg with a hard shell around the embryo. At implantation the embryo must push itself out of the shell so it can burrow into the endometrial lining for implantation. If the shell is too thick, the embryo can fail to hatch and therefore implantation and pregnancy cannot occur.

The IVF process can be separated into 2 parts, the egg retrieval and the transfer of the embryo back into the uterus. The egg retrieval requires on average 10 days of injections to grow the eggs with clinic visits during that time. On the 12th day is the egg retrieval which is a 15-20 minute procedure. The embryo transfer can be done 3-5 days after the egg retrieval or the embryos can be frozen for genetic testing or embryo banking. Once a decision has been made to thaw the embryo(s), it can take 17-28 days to prepare the uterus for transfer. 10 days after embryo transfer is the pregnancy test.

The egg retrieval is done under light anesthesia, so the procedure is painless.

There is minimal risk to the ovaries, even after multiple egg retrievals.

Pregnancy test can be performed 10 days after the embryo is transferred back into the uterus.

Currently there are no limitations on the number of IVF cycles the couple can try.