Improving IVF success rates and reducing complications

An IVF cycle is a very difficult and time-consuming task that causes anxiety and concern. It is a team effort between you, the physicians, nursing staff and laboratory personnel. It is a challenge for us and a dream for you that we will always do our best to help you realize. Here are some ways we seek to improve our success rates and reduce complications. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call us.

Research
We are constantly searching for ways to improve our IVF success rate. When we learn about a new procedure or methodology, we consider carefully before introducing it into our IVF program. Procedures that have been tried in research must be approved by the University of Louisville Human Studies Committee before we can use them in the Fertility Center. Sometimes the changes we make are as simple as trying a new brand of Petri dish. Sometimes we make a major change, such as introducing intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI).

Prevention of multiple births
To reduce the number of multiple births, we monitor carefully during treatments with fertility drugs and limit the number of embryos transferred during IVF to decrease the chance of multiple pregnancy. Additional embryos may be frozen for later use.

Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis
When couples are at high risk for transmitting a genetic disease, embryos produced by IVF are biopsied at 72 hours and tested for the genetic disease in question. Only embryos free of the mutation are used.

Improving pregnancy rates with Ultrasound Guided Embryo Transfer
Transabdominal ultrasound allows the clinician to see the catheter inside the endometrial cavity during the embryo transfer. Several studies suggest that ultrasound guided embryo transfer significantly improves implantation and pregnancy rates. Learn more and see our rates