In vitro fertilization is a form of treatment applied to couples who cannot become pregnant with classical methods. It is based on the principle of transferring the embryos, which are formed as a result of combining male (sperm) and female (egg) progeny cells under laboratory conditions, to the uterus.
Fertilization performed under laboratory conditions is achieved spontaneously (in vitro fertilization-IVF) or by human hand, by injecting a single sperm into a single egg (microinjection-ICSI).
IVF treatments now consist of 3 basic steps that have been standardized all over the world. IVF treatment begins with stimulating the ovaries to produce a large number of egg cells. The next step is to collect these eggs and fertilize them with the sperm to form an embryo. After fertilization, the embryos are stored in incubators in the laboratory for 3-5 days until they are transferred to their mother’s uterus. A pregnancy test is done 10-12 days after the transfer.