IVF & Treatment · June 2026 · 9 min read
IVF is talked about constantly and explained well rarely. Here is what actually happens, in order, written without jargon — and what each step is really for.
In vitro fertilisation — IVF — is a treatment where eggs and sperm are brought together outside the body, in a laboratory, and the resulting embryo is transferred back into the uterus. It was first used successfully in 1978. According to the HFEA, around 1 in 6 couples in the UK experience some form of fertility difficulty, and IVF is now responsible for around 1 in every 30 babies born in the UK.
In a natural cycle, your ovaries usually mature one egg. In IVF, we gently encourage them to mature several at once, using daily hormone injections for around 10 to 12 days. You're monitored closely throughout — usually three or four short ultrasound scans and blood tests — so the dose can be adjusted to your body's response.
The goal is not as many eggs as possible. The goal is the right number of good-quality eggs for you.
A short procedure under sedation. A fine needle, guided by ultrasound, collects the fluid from each mature follicle. Most people are at the clinic for a few hours and home the same day. Mild cramping is normal for a day or two afterwards.
This is where our embryologists take over. Eggs and sperm are brought together in one of two ways:
Standard IVF — prepared sperm is placed with each egg and allowed to fertilise naturally.
ICSI — intracytoplasmic sperm injection — a single healthy sperm is injected directly into each mature egg. ICSI is recommended when sperm parameters or previous fertilisation outcomes make standard IVF less reliable.
The laboratory is the part of IVF patients rarely see — and the part that quietly decides everything.
Fertilised eggs are grown in carefully controlled incubators for five to six days. The embryologists assess development each day, watching for the milestones a healthy embryo should hit. Most embryos that are going to make it to a transferable stage do so by day 5 or 6 — the blastocyst stage.
A quick, gentle procedure that doesn't usually require sedation. One embryo (in most cases — single embryo transfer is the modern standard, to avoid the risks of twin pregnancies) is placed into the uterus through a fine catheter. Any additional viable embryos are vitrified for future use.
Around 10 to 14 days later, a blood test confirms whether the embryo has implanted. The wait is, honestly, the part most patients find hardest. Plan for it the way you'd plan for any meaningful event — with gentleness.
Success rates depend heavily on age, diagnosis and embryo quality. Published HFEA data shows that the average live birth rate per embryo transferred using a patient's own fresh eggs is around 32% for women under 35, falling with age. Individual prognosis is always best discussed at consultation, where your own history is in the room.
