Natural IVF: Working with the Body’s Natural Process

By lstack Updated on

Are you concerned about the risk of multiples?  The burden of medication on your body, or the additional costs of medications?  Natural IVF might be a great solution for you.
During a Natural IVF cycle, a woman’s body is monitored closely with ultrasounds and bloodwork.  Instead of stimulating the ovaries to produce many follicles, a natural cycle does not use any medications, and instead uses the body’s natural follicular development.  Over the course of your natural cycle we observe your normal follicular growth (typically one follicle), and when your follicle has reached the appropriate size, we proceed with a typical IVF procedure.  The one follicle will be removed during an egg retrieval, and then fertilized.  After fertilization we watch your embryo grow, checking on its progress every few days.  Once your embryo reaches an appropriate stage, we will transfer the embryo back into your uterus.  Then, approximately two weeks later, we will schedule a blood test to check for pregnancy.

Clients will often choose a Natural IVF cycle if they want to minimize the risk of multiples, ovarian hyperstimulation (OHSS), or the number of embryos that could be created with a typical IVF cycle.  Additionally, minimizing the amount of medications used decreases the burden on the body, and the financial strain that clients can incur.

Since you will not be stimulating the ovaries with a Natural IVF cycle, it is unlikely that you will have two or more embryos to work with.  It is also very unlikely that you will have embryos to freeze.  Therefore, it is important to make sure that you are comfortable with a single embryo transfer, without frozen embryos to possibly transfer in the future.
If you would like to learn more about Natural IVF, please feel free to contact our center at any time.   If you are a new patient and would like an initial fertility consultation, in-office or over the phone, please visit this link and fill out our New Appointment Form or call us toll free at 800-539-9870.