Under the care of our team, the partner giving the eggs is given fertility medications, mainly in the form of injections to stimulate her ovaries to produce multiple follicles. Follicles are the small fluid filled structures within the ovaries, each of which will hopefully contain an egg.

The number and size of the developing follicles is measured by trans-vaginal ultrasound scans. The exact number of follicles which develop varies greatly between patients. One of the purposes of testing is to give you and us an idea in advance of how many follicles and eggs may develop.

The final preparation for egg retrieval involves a hormone injection which mimics the natural trigger for ovulation. Egg retrieval will take place 36 hours after this injection.

Egg retrieval is a minor theatre procedure which is carried out in the clinic under sedation.

A trans-vaginal ultrasound probe is used and a needle attached to the probe is carefully passed through the vaginal wall into the ovaries and follicles.

The ovarian fluid within each follicle is aspirated and then examined in the IVF laboratory by the embryologist for the presence of an egg. After identification, the eggs are washed and transferred into a special culture in an incubator.

While the egg retrieval is happening, your chosen donor sperm sample is prepared for use. In the laboratory, a concentrated preparation of the best motile sperm is extracted from the semen sample. This sperm preparation (containing approximately 150,000 sperm) is added to the dishes containing the eggs, and they are incubated together overnight.

On the morning after egg retrieval, the eggs are examined to see which have fertilised. Fertilised eggs (zygotes) are cultured in the IVF laboratory until day 5 or 6, the blastocyst stage, at which point they are frozen to await transfer to the other partner.

Under the care of our team, the partner having the embryo transfer will be given oral or injectable fertility medications to stimulate her body to thicken the lining of her uterus.

The development of the uterine lining will be measured by trans-vaginal ultrasound scans. Once the desired thickness is reached, the embryo transfer will be scheduled.

The frozen embryo transfer (FET) is a simple theatre procedure that does not usually require anaesthesia.

The embryo(s) are placed back into the uterus by the doctor by way of a small catheter inserted through the cervix. The fluid containing the embryo(s) is pushed through the cervix and into the uterus.

The correct positioning of the embryo(s) is confirmed by abdominal ultrasound, so the partner undergoing the procedure is required to have a full bladder for the procedure.