IVF treatment: everything you need to know

There are lots of factors to consider when choosing an IVF clinic, such as location, cost, success rates and treatments. But things like compassionate staff, transparent pricing, administrative processes and emotional support matter just as much, according to the HFEA.

It is important to take the time to visit a few different clinics to ensure you find an IVF clinic where you are treated like an individual, listened to and made to feel comfortable, right from the start. We offer free 1-2-1s to help you make an informed decision about which clinic is best for you, where you can come and tour our clinic, meet our team and get to know more about us and our approach. You can book a 1-2-1 online or call us on 0845 268 2244.

A single cycle of IVF with Manchester Fertility costs from £3250. We also offer a cost-effective IVF package which includes all the fees and costs involved in an IVF cycle together with Embryoscope time-lapse embryo selection, for one simple fixed price. You can also explore your funding options.

IVF is a generally safe fertility treatment which is used worldwide.

The main risks of IVF are:

• OHSS (Ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome) - OHSS is a rare complication of IVF where the ovaries overreact to the fertility drugs needed to produce mature eggs.  Symptoms of OHSS can range from mild to severe and in some cases are life-threatening if left untreated. The protocols used at Manchester Fertility and careful monitoring of the patient minimises this risk.
• Multiple births – if more than one embryo is transferred there is an increased chance of a multiple pregnancy.  Twins or triplet pregnancies have a higher risk of pre-term birth and lower birth weight than with a singleton pregnancy.

Natural IVF does not use any fertility medication and relies solely on the egg you naturally ovulate that month. Because it has very low success rates, we do not offer Natural IVF.

Instead we offer Modified Natural Cycle IVF, which uses very low doses of medication to help you produce at least one egg. Modified Natural Cycle would only be advised in very specific circumstances where standard doses of IVF medications would not improve the numbers of eggs produced, such as in women with a low ovarian reserve or those who have responded poorly to IVF in the past.

It only takes a few days of embryo development for our expert Embryology team to identify which embryos have the best pregnancy potential. Your embryos are safely developed in the optimum conditions of our state-of-the-art IVF laboratory over two to five days.

Embryos are either developed through standard incubator culture or in our Embryoscope incubators, where our embryologists can see every crucial stage of undisturbed development using time-lapse video technology.

We look for specific cell division and growth to choose which embryos are best for transfer.  If recommended by your Fertility Consultant we can perform genetic testing, known as Pre-implantation Genetic Screening (PGS), aneuploidy screening or PGT-A, to ensure that only embryos with correct chromosome numbers are selected for your IVF cycle.

Time off work is a very individual decision, based on how you are feeling. Many of our patients like to take some time off after egg retrieval and after embryo transfer for instance.

The best advice is to follow the guidance given by our team about rest periods, activity and your normal routine.