The IVF Journey Step-by-Step: What Exactly Happens in the Lab?

For most people, there’s something sort of mysterious about IVF. You see the doctors, you take the medications, and then, after the eggs are retrieved, it all happens behind closed doors. For many patients, that "black box" is the scariest part. However, understanding exactly what happens in the IVF lab can bring you a great deal of peace.

At Kulki IVF and ART Center, we believe you have the right to know, in detail, exactly how we care for your future family. It’s not just science—it’s personal to us. Here is the IVF process step by step, breaking down exactly what goes on inside our laboratory:

1. Retrieval and Preparation (Time Starts)

• The moment your eggs are retrieved, the race begins. This is basically "Day 0" of your IVF cycle timeline in the lab.

• The Handoff: Once the doctor collects the fluid containing the eggs, our team of embryologists takes over.

• The Clean-up: The eggs go under the microscope. We gently clean the cells around the eggs so we can see exactly what we are working with.

• Quality Check: Not all the eggs are mature. Carefully, each is checked for maturity as only mature eggs can be fertilized.

  
  

2. Sperm Preparation

While we prepare the eggs, we also work on the sperm sample. We do not just use the sample "as is." We wash and spin it to separate the healthy, fast-swimming sperm from the sluggish ones. Why? The objective is that we want only the strongest swimmers meeting your eggs.

3. Fertilization: How We Create Embryos

Once everyone is ready, fertilization takes place. Based on your unique history, we employ one of the following methods:

• Standard IVF: We place the sperm and eggs together in a dish and let nature take its course.

• The ICSI Procedure: In our case, if sperm quality is a concern, we don't leave it to chance. That’s where the ICSI procedure (Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection) comes in—where a single, healthy sperm is carefully injected directly into the egg.

4. Culture and Monitoring (The Waiting Game)

This is the "waiting" part. In the following 3 to 5 days, your embryos stay in our incubators, which perfectly simulate the conditions of the human body environment. These are crucial IVF laboratory procedures.

• Observation of growth: We observe them progress from one cell to two, four, and eight cells.

• Grading: We grade them based on their appearance and on the speed with which they divide. We are looking for the "textbook" embryo that has the best shot at becoming a baby.

5. The Transfer

By Day 3 or Day 5, we select the best embryo. We put it into a small, soft catheter and the doctor advances it to your uterus. It is a very short moment, but it’s the finish line of the lab work.

6. Freezing the Rest (Plan B)

If you are fortunate and have additional high-quality embryos, we do not discard them. We freeze them by a flash-freezing technique called vitrification. That gives you a safety net for the future, so you don't have to do that part—the egg retrieval part—again.

7. Safety First Policy at Kulki IVF and ART Center

People are so afraid of mix-ups. We get it. That is why our lab is obsessive about safety, using strict identification systems at each and every step. We double-check names and IDs before any procedure can occur. Your genetic material is treated with the same protection we would want for our own families.

Though the lab may sound technical, it is actually a place of hope. By knowing what follows, you aren't just a patient; you are a partner in the process. Here at Kulki IVF and ART Center, it’s an honor for us to walk this path with you.