For most women, the answer is no: after the first few weeks, an IVF pregnancy is the same as a “regular” pregnancy in every respect, at least insofar as any two pregnancies can be compared. Every woman and every pregnancy is unique, no matter how the baby is conceived.
According to the Idaho Fertility Center, “IVF is often more successful as it bypasses certain barriers that may inhibit fertilization. Having the ability to control ovulation and monitor the effectiveness of medications also adds to success when trying to conceive.
The differences between natural and IVF pregnancy are not well defined but there is a very thin line with relation to the timing of the symptoms. Telltale signs such breast tenderness, food aversions and mood swings could set in as early as the first two weeks of IVF pregnancy.
Given the unique method of conception, some may wonder how IVF pregnancy differs from a pregnancy that does not use assisted reproductive technology (ART) such as IVF. As it turns out, the risks and complications are pretty similar.
IVF can be mentally, physically and emotionally painful. In many cases, one of the biggest complaints is bloating and pain some women face during the ovarian stimulation process, where hormones are injected to produce multiple eggs for retrieval.
Your chances of having a healthy baby using IVF depend on many factors, such as your age and the cause of infertility. In addition, IVF can be time-consuming, expensive and invasive. If more than one embryo is transferred to the uterus, IVF can result in a pregnancy with more than one fetus (multiple pregnancy).
They deduce that more male than female embryos may be transferred because males have higher morphology scales and are thus deemed more suited for success.
The 10-14 day waiting period between transfer and receiving the pregnancy test results is often described as the most difficult part of the cycle. Having had daily contact with your medical support staff during monitoring and retrieval, you suddenly are on your own after transfer and just have to wait.
During an IVF cycle, the two-week wait between embryo transfer and the pregnancy result can often be stressful. The truth is, on an emotional level, for many people it could be the most difficult time to endure.
Many women (and men) found the emotional impact of fertility treatment the hardest thing to cope with. Women described the treatment and uncertainty of whether it would work or not as hitting them on many different levels.
What's the bottom line? The vast majority of pregnancies conceived using IVF are just as healthy as those from natural conception. Furthermore, the children coming from IVF pregnancies are just as smart and physically fit as their naturally-conceived counterparts.
For couples considering IVF with donor eggs, epigenetics suggests that the baby may or may not look like a combination of the egg donor and the egg recipient's partner; there are too many variations and unknowns to make that prediction.
A: No, IVF kids do not look different from children conceived naturally. Physical characteristics like hair color, eye color, and height are determined by genetic traits from both parents, which are present in the fertilized egg used in IVF.
IVF increases the likelihood of twins, triplets or high-order multiples, with accompanying risk for premature birth, high blood pressure, placenta abnormalities and other challenges. Advanced maternal age (often the reason for IVF) increases risk for miscarriage and birth defects.
Hence, it is important for couples to understand that the success rate of IVF depends on various factors such as age, the condition of the woman's uterus and the ovarian reserve with good quality oocytes, the quality of the man's sperms, and other biological and hormonal conditions.
The probability of the fertile population having a child with a genetic defect is approximately 3%–5%. The birth defect rate increases by approximately 1 percent for those who undergo IVF. However, studies show that couples struggling with infertility have that same disparity even if they choose not to opt for IVF.
The most potentially painful part of undergoing IVF is the procedure to implant the fertilized eggs back into the uterus.
IVF Success Rates Under 35
The Society for Reproductive Technology (SART) states that for women under 35, the percentage of live births via IVF is 55.6%. Live births per first embryo transfer is 41.4%. With a later embryo transfer, the live births percentage is around 47%.
Women under 35 have the highest success rates in all of the “egg number” groups. Women under 38 in our IVF program have acceptable live birth rates even with only 3 – 6 eggs, do better with more than 6 eggs, and do best with more than 10 eggs.
Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome (OHSS) is one of the most dangerous and direct side effects of fertility drugs used in IVF procedures. Simply put, OHSS is characterized by enlargement of the ovaries that can lead to a number of symptoms and in severe cases, death⁵.
4) You'll need more support than you originally thought. Your partner, friends and family are there for you but they may not be enough to cut it when the going gets tough. It's wise to line up a few different layers of infertility support before you start IVF treatment so they're there for you if you need it.
These drugs increase certain hormone levels, including progesterone, to prepare the body for pregnancy. Just as when progesterone levels rise naturally during pregnancy, increased progesterone levels during IVF are likely to result in fatigue.
This is the process of a couple or individual choosing the genetic sex of the child, boy or girl, by testing the embryo(s) created through IVF before one is implanted in the uterus. Sex selection is only possible using IVF embryos. The term sex selection is preferable to the past term of gender selection.
The extra copy of the X chromosome in females is switched off during early embryo development by an epigenetic process known as “X chromosome inactivation”. The researchers found that X chromosome inactivation was impaired in female IVF embryos. Research now continues on how to correct this gender skew in IVF.
Women using IVF to get pregnant should be aware that they will be more likely to have a boy than a girl, say experts. Australian researchers found the odds of a boy went up from 51 in 100 when conceived naturally to 56 in 100.