For Patients Infertility Explained ART ART
Assisted Reproductive Technology (or Technique), commonly called ART, refers to any infertility treatment that uses advanced technology to combine sperm and eggs outside the body in a laboratory. Most couples go through extensive infertility evaluation before considering ART. Some infertile couples will choose to use lower-technology treatments, such as intrauterine insemination (IUI), before turning to ART. Others find that their chances at getting pregnant are optimal with ART. It's estimated that about one-third of infertile couples in the United States are good candidates for infertility treatment using ART.
ICSI (Sperm Injection)
Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) is a laboratory procedure developed to help infertile couples undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) due to male factor infertility. In ICSI, a lab specialist uses a tiny needle under a microscope to inject a single sperm cell directly into the cytoplasm of a mature egg (oocyte). The process increases the likelihood of fertilization when there are abnormalities in the number, quality, or function of the sperm.
Blastocyst Transfer
After they are created in the IVF process, a selected number of specific embryos are transferred from the laboratory into the mother's uterus. For a successful pregnancy and healthy baby the embryo or embryos must implant on the uterine wall. The term "blastocyst transfer" refers to performing this procedure at a specific time in the embryo's development.
Assisted Hatching
Very early in their development, embryos are surrounded by an outer coating, the zona pellucida. This coating holds together the individual cells of an embryo. Upon arrival of the embryo in the uterus, the outer zona coating dissolves. The embryo can then "hatch" out of the coating and grow larger.
Frozen Embryo Transfer FAQ
Embryos may be frozen at different times after fertilization. At RSC embryos are frozen three, or six days after the sperm and eggs are combined. Freezing is a stressful process for an embryo, and only embryos that are growing well in the laboratory will tolerate the freezing procedure.
InVitro Fertilization (IVF)
In vitro fertilization (IVF) is a method of infertility treatment in which specialists combine the sperm and the egg (oocyte) in a laboratory dish for fertilization to occur. A doctor then transfers the resulting embryo(s) to the uterus to develop naturally. IVF treatment offers the highest rate of success out of all the treatment options for infertility. It is also the most complex fertility treatment.
