By now you will have probably watched the Kareena Kapoor Khan and Akshay Kumar movie, Good Newwz, which throws light on IVF. While the movie is a comedy-drama, it doesn’t really go into the depth of what IVF is about. For many couples dealing with fertility issues, IVF is one option for them to conceive. Wondering what it entails and how much it costs? We got you the lowdown from Dr Anagha Karkhanis, Senior Gynaecologist and Infertility Specialist and Director of Cocoon Fertility, to shed more light on it.
What exactly is IVF?
During the time of natural conception, the sperm and egg come together in the woman’s Fallopian tubes. This is followed by the sperm penetrating the egg to trigger fertilization. IVF is a technique wherein fertilization does not happen in the woman’s body and instead, occurs in the laboratory. In this procedure, the eggs are surgically extracted from a female’s body and merged with the sperm in a lab. Once fertilization happens, the embryo is implanted into the womb. The method is termed as in vitro fertilization, ‘in vitro’ which means ‘in glass’ or a dish, it means outside the body (culture).
Should I opt for IUI or IVF?
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“Other fertility methods like IUI (Intrauterine Insemination) may be more appropriate and your fertility doctor will be able to advise you if that is the case, keeping the aim of getting you pregnant faster. But it is important to note that in comparison with IVF, the success rate of IUI per attempt is much lesser and hence IVF treatments definitely tend to have an upper hand when compared to IUI treatment. However, owing to the gap in the rate of success between the 2 treatments, some patients who are in their late 30s to early 40s may conceive faster by directly opting for IVF rather than waiting till they have had numerous failed IUI cycles.”
What is the success rate of IVF?
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Does age matter when it comes to the success of IVF? Dr Anagha says, “It is never easy to be precise about the rate of success of a given treatment as there exist a number of variables that impact individual cases, but going by the statistics, the method of IVF makes use of a woman’s own eggs, hence average success rates lie between forty to forty-five percent for patients under 35 years of age to fifteen percent or less for women who have crossed 42 years of age.”
How much would the IVF treatment cost?
IVF isn’t exactly cheap; it is known to be one of the most expensive fertility treatments out there. Dr Anagha adds, “The cost of an IVF treatment would generally depend upon the cause of infertility, the type of IVF stimulation that is required and other interventions that might be needed in the lab to achieve the formation of a good quality embryo. Hence, the treatments will vary from patient to patient to a certain extent. In the industry today, IVF cycles are available from between INR 1.5 Lacs all-inclusive to INR 4.5 lacs all inclusive.” If there is sperm required for the donor’s egg, the cost of the treatment would be higher.
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