In vitro fertilisation (IVF) holds out hope for couples who have been facing months or even years of infertility. It is a particularly favoured technique by couples who face specific challenges that rule out other options.

For women whose fallopian tubes are irreversibly damaged or blocked, natural fertilisation is usually impossible, because the egg and the sperm would presumably be divided by a partition. In this case, fertilising an egg outside the body via IVF, and placing the subsequent embryo inside the uterus may provide the best chance of pregnancy.

Minor anomalies in sperm can be overcome with IVF. Sometimes, additional fertility tools that complement IVF may also be required to optimise the chances of conception. Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), for example, is a technique employed along with IVF, where the best possible sperm cell is selected and injected directly into a mature egg. There is a bouquet of techniques that can be used to combat anomalies in sperm.

Lifeline is home to the embryoscope: an advanced, cutting-edge incubator that supplies digital images of an embryo every ten minutes as it is hosted under an optimal environment in an IVF laboratory. The time lapse monitoring technique covers an embryo’s journey as it prepares to become a blastocyst and allows embryologists a window to examine an embryo in remarkable detail, without removing it from the incubator. The embryoscope gives an embryo a conducive environment to grow in and shields it from fluctuations in temperature and physical contact. An embryoscope can augment the chances of an IVF cycle.

Preimplantation genetic testing lets you screen embryos created via IVF, for genetic defects. Genetic testing has two arms. The first is preimplantation genetic screening (PGS), a technique that filters embryos of chromosomally normal genetic parents for structural or numerical chromosomal errors. The second arm is preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), which is performed to trace potential abnormalities in embryos whose parents have a known history of genetic mutations. PGD is equipped to detect sex-linked disorders, single gene defects and chromosomal disorders.