But beyond the sweet images of healthy newborns used to illustrate IVF services, there’s a darker and less happy side to IVF that some people may not realize. Most significantly, it’s not that easy to have a baby with ART. The truth, I learned, is far more complicated — and painful.
“It only takes one” — meaning successful implantation of an embryo — is a mantra that gets repeated throughout any foray into IVF/ART (unless the first try is successful). This might resonate with some people, provide comfort or be irritating — and likely all three at some point.
What’s not communicated very well is that at every stage of the process, the numbers of embryos falls off. For instance, hormone IVF treatments may produce 20 eggs but maybe only half will actually manage to get fertilized with sperm to create an embryo. Out of those, another half will survive to day five, when they are genetically tested. And it’s possible that once tested all of them may be abnormal, and not viable.
