IVF and the Assisted Hatching Procedure

Posted on May 20, 2010 | Category: Featured, Relationship Trivia

Once you have made the decision to undergo a cycle of IVF you will then need to research additional aspects of the treatment which, depending on the cause of your infertility, your age and other medical factors will vary.  You will need to decide whether to undergo ICSI and/or assisted hatching IVF and whether to try and take your embryos to blastocyst stage.

Assisted hatching is a fertility treatment which is recommended to those undergoing IVF who are over 37 years old, have a high FSH or have had repeated unsuccessful IVF cycles.  It is a relatively new treatment and so success with the procedure varies enormously from clinic to clinic.  It depends a lot on the experience of the embryologist and also on the equipment used to perform the procedure.

The IVF cycle starts like any other, with the woman stimulated to produce large numbers of eggs which are collected and fertilised by her partner’s sperm.  The embryos are then left to cleave for 2, 3 or 5 days.  The assisted hatching procedure is generally carried out immediately before the embryos are put back into the uterus and is performed only on the embryos that are to be returned.  The general idea is that the protective outer layer of the embryo is thinned so that it is easier for the embryo to hatch out and implant in the womb.

The most modern equipment uses laser assisted hatching but many clinics still use chemical or mechanical methods.  Chemical hatching involves dripping a small amount of acid onto the embryo to thin out the protective layer.  This and the mechanical method where the protective layer is worn down are quite crude methods (though the chemical method is still the most commonly found).  The laser method is far more accurate, involves less handling of the embryo and produces greater success rates.

» Filed Under Featured, Relationship Trivia

Leave a Reply