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All you need to know about IVF in Medicana International Hospital

What is IVF?

In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) is a technique where your Gynaecologist specified in infertility stimulates your ovaries with some drugs, collects the eggs from the ovaries and gives to the laboratory to be fertilized with sperms from the male partner. A few days later, fertilized eggs (the embryos) are injected into to the womb where they are supposed to implant and continue to grow. If surplus embryos exist, they are kept frozen in the lab.

Our IVF team tries to optimize all steps for the couple to maximize their chance for pregnancy. It is most successful when the doctor uses the optimal dosage of drugs, finds the best timing for egg retrieval and implantation. More importantly, in the lab, heart of the IVF technology, the embryologists use several cutting edge techniques to select the best sperms and create embryos in optimal conditions for a successful pregnancy.

Who should consider IVF treatment?

Nowadays, IVF is the most powerful tool in our hands to help couples who wish to become pregnant. There are certainly some other methods aiming pregnancy. However, most fertility clinics offer IVF to couples who’ve had prior other unsuccessful fertility treatments or ladies after 35 years of age. IVF is for heterosexual couples only since donation of eggs or sperms are not permitted here in Turkey.

Infertile women with tubal problems or Polycystic Ovaries (PCO) are good candidates for IVF. Endometriosis patients also constitute an important portion of our couples. If the main problem is low sperm count and/or motility, we prefer ICSI (Intra Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection) instead of IVF or even use micro-TESE (Testicular Sperm Extraction) to find the healthy sperms if necessary. ICSI is the technique where embryologists place the most viable sperms directly into the woman’s eggs.

Sometimes, no specific cause of infertility can be identified, then, the couple is diagnosed with unexplained infertility. These couples are also good candidates if other methods like intrauterine insemination haven’t worked well before.

What is the age limit for IVF treatment?

There is no strict age limit in Turkey. Most clinics do an individual evaluation based on various investigative tests. However, it is well known that the success rate drops to very low levels after 45 years of age.

What is the success rate of IVF?

It can be said that 7 or 8 out of 10 couples will have a child within three attempts. Success rate with IVF mainly depends upon the female age and probably on some other medical conditions as well. The success rate is above 50 percent if the woman is younger than 36 years. A woman aged 44 or over has a success rate of five percent or lower. However, every woman is different and individual differences may certainly play a great role, these numbers are only general statistics. That’s why individual evaluation is essential.

Generally speaking, female fertility drops rapidly with age and time is not your friend when it comes to fertility issues. If you wish to become pregnant after one year of unprotected regular sexual life, you should see a specialist in IVF sooner rather than later to get answers as to why conception is not happening and get some advice about how to move forward. If your age is near or older than 35, you should not wait more than a couple of months for a consultation to create the family you want.

How many eggs should be obtained?

There is no guarantee on the number of eggs we can remove during an egg collection. It is aimed to retrieve all viable eggs. According the studies on this subject, highest rates are achieved when 10 to 15 eggs are collected. However, remember that successful treatment is not only dependent on a high number of eggs retrieved, but also the quality of eggs.

Can extra embryos be frozen?

All surplus embryos after the transfer can be frozen upon the couples’ request if they look good enough according to our parameters. The embryos will be cryo-preserved (frozen) for up to five years in liquid nitrogen-containing tanks to give couples another chance to do a less expensive and less invasive embryo transfer or a brother/sister attempt if they wish to do so after a successful pregnancy.

Can a single woman receive IVF treatment?

Due to Turkish Legislation, we are unable to treat single women since donation is not legal today.

What is the main reason for some foreign couples choose IVF treatment in Turkey?

Couples may need more than one IVF treatment to become pregnant since the success rate is somehow limited. Unfortunately, IVF is very expensive in US, UK and most European Countries. So, many couples can’t afford to do more than one fresh attempt. Couples who choose Medicana in Turkey realize they can have up to three fresh IVF attempts for the same price as one in the UK or US. This reduces the financial stress and gives a sense of safety to the couple.

How man IVF cycles will I need?

According to our own statistics, 8 out of 10 couples will have a child within three attempts. We certainly try to do our best to obtain pregnancy at the first trial. However, it should be remembered that there are lots of couples who hold their babies after repeated IVF attempts.

We believe that one of the secrets to success is a good individual treatment plan. Every couple has their specific needs and the details should be carefully evaluated and the treatment be tailored accordingly.