What Is IVF?

IVF stands for in vitro fertilization. It is a type of assisted reproductive technology (ART) used to help people in achieving a pregnancy. During IVF, human eggs and sperm are combined in an IVF lab to create embryos. Once the embryos reach a certain stage, they can be transferred into a uterus. The egg donor and the embryo recipient can be two different people.

Once in a uterus, the embryo may or may not implant. If the embryo implants, pregnancy begins and is considered active.

Individuals or couples may pursue IVF for a variety of reasons. This includes infertility, genetic abnormalities, issues with the fallopian tubes, endometriosis and many other medical issues that may contribute to difficulties becoming pregnant naturally. IVF may also be used by same-sex couples or by people who would like to use donor eggs or sperm to expand their family.

IVF is a complex medical process that can be invasive and taxing on the body. An entire IVF cycle could take anywhere from several weeks to a couple of months, depending on what the individual/couple is pursuing and how the body responds to certain IVF treatments.

Here are some of the key steps in the IVF process:

• Initial screening: This includes various analyses such as doing bloodwork, determining the number of available eggs, analyzing semen, genetic carrier screening, infectious disease screening and examining the uterus.
• Egg development: Depending on the needs of the patient, the IVF team might use hormone medication to stimulate the ovaries to make eggs. The IVF process requires multiple eggs, as some won’t be fertilized. Other medicines might help the eggs mature, prepare the uterine lining or delay ovulation for a more opportune moment.
• Egg retrieval: The patient will often go under anesthesia so the fertility doctors can retrieve all of the eggs from the ovaries.
• Sperm retrieval: Doctors harvest sperm cells from a semen sample.
• Fertilization: At this point, the IVF clinic will attempt to fertilize the eggs in a petri dish and place them in the embryo culture media.
• Embryo testing: Once embryos reach a certain stage, they can undergo pre-implantation genetic testing to check for abnormalities. The testing can also show the quality of the embryos and can help embryologists decide which embryos have the highest likelihood of leading to a successful pregnancy.
• Embryo transfer: The chosen embryo (or multiple embryos) is implanted into the uterus. If the transfer is successful, the embryo will attach to the uterine lining.
• HCG blood test: Depending on the clinic, patients will often have to wait two weeks and then go back into the clinic for a human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) blood test. HCG is a hormone that’s produced by the growing placenta. This bloodwork test will show the patient’s HCG levels and indicate whether they are pregnant or not.

It’s important to remember that every patient’s IVF process can be different depending on their goal and what their body needs throughout the process.

For example, some patients might only go through half of the process to create frozen embryos for future use. Others might have to wait a month or so for their embryos to be genetically tested before the transfer. Some may have to do multiple rounds of IVF with additional procedures to produce a healthy embryo. For many, successful IVF procedures provide them with the opportunity to build the family they desire.

IVF comes with many physical, medical and emotional considerations. Those who pursue IVF will often face many tough decisions, including what procedures they’d like to have. They also must decide what to do with their unused embryos/eggs/sperm, how to proceed after unsuccessful procedures and many other decisions.

There are also medical risks that come with the IVF process. Some are mild side effects like bloating, abdominal pain, soreness and nausea. The serious medical risks include:

• Multiple implanted embryos that lead to high-risk pregnancy complications
• Organ injuries
• Ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome
• Pelvic infections

It’s also important to understand the risks of miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies when undergoing any fertility treatment. Data now shows that the risk of miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies is often not significantly different in IVF pregnancies than in natural pregnancies.

What is the IVF success rate?

It can be difficult to estimate an overall IVF success rate. Every patient has different circumstances that may or may not lead to a successful pregnancy. IVF success rates can be influenced by:

• Grade of the embryos
• Maternal age
• Overall health and lifestyle habits of the patient
• Quality of eggs and sperm retrieved
• Quantity of eggs and sperm retrieved
• Reproductive organ health

Within the past couple of years, IVF lawsuits regarding the CooperSurgical defective IVF culture media (IVF fluid) have grown.

Plaintiffs in CooperSurgical lawsuits allege that the company manufactured and distributed defective embryo fluid for use at IVF clinics nationwide. While CooperSurgical knew of problems with several lots of their IVF fluid, they delayed in issuing a recall. The delay led to the loss of plaintiffs’ embryos.

People who were affected by this corporate negligence lost their embryos and potentially their only chance at having children. For many, this is especially disheartening as IVF can be too expensive and time consuming to pursue multiple times.

If you’ve been affected by defective medical devices or products during the IVF process, consider consulting an attorney with IVF/fertility lawsuit experience. Not only can they help build your case, but they can also litigate on your behalf in court in order to avoid an emotional rehashing of the trauma you experienced.

Motley Rice understands the emotional and financial repercussions of experiencing injustice at the hands of large corporations. Our lawyers have the knowledge and experience necessary to file IVF lawsuits like the ones previously filed by those affected by CooperSurgical IVF fluid.

We have represented women harmed by:

• Defective birth control devices
• Breast implants
• Transvaginal mesh devices

Read more on our women’s health litigation experience.