Take Your Next Step with IVF Treatment

During an IVF cycle, women are treated with medications to stimulate the development of multiple ovarian follicles to produce eggs for fertilization. Eggs are then retrieved and combined with sperm in the IVF laboratory. One embryo is then transferred into the woman’s uterus to achieve a pregnancy.

After your full fertility evaluation and a consultation with your doctor, you will discuss your fertility treatment options and decide where to begin. If you struggle with conditions like endometriosis, Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), tubal infertility or male factor infertility, IVF may be a great treatment option for you.

The answer to this question largely depends on your insurance coverage. (Don’t have insurance coverage? Learn more here.) Out of pocket costs typically range from $12,850 to $24,250 (with medications).

To help ensure that all patients can access the high-quality care they need at the most affordable prices possible, Illume Fertility offers the IVF Opportunity Plan. With the IVF Opportunity Plan, patients who do not have any insurance coverage can pay one price for up to three cycles of IVF with oral and injectable medications. After you become a patient, you will be assigned an Insurance & Billing Advocate to help you navigate the cost of your treatment cycle.

The short answer: an IVF cycle takes around one month to complete. When including preconception health, fertility testing and other important steps, it takes closer to four months. A fertility nurse explains the true length of IVF here. 

Here’s how IVF works: patients begin by taking oral contraceptives for 10-14 days before starting fertility medications. After completing a course of oral contraceptives, IVF patients begin injections of fertility medication for approximately 9-11 days. Egg retrieval is a 15-30 minute procedure where the eggs are removed from the ovarian follicles and sent to the IVF lab to fertilize and divide. 

Illume Fertility’s top embryologists monitor the growth of your embryos in our own lab onsite. An embryologist cares for them and watches them develop for five days. After fertilization, the embryo will be transferred back to the uterus on day five. The embryo transfer is also a one-day procedure that should take approximately 20 to 30 minutes. Following this is a waiting period to see if the embryo implants in the uterus, which typically takes 9-10 days depending on the maturity of the embryo at the time of transfer.

At Illume Fertility, we are proud to consistently report excellent IVF success rates. You can view all clinic data in this report from the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART). 

1. Although it may seem counterintuitive, IVF patients must take oral contraceptives for 10-14 days before starting fertility medications. When taken before ovarian stimulation, studies have shown that oral contraceptives can increase the number of eggs available for retrieval, ensure follicles grow as a cohesive group, and support ovarian health throughout IVF.
2. After completing a course of oral contraceptives, IVF patients begin injections of fertility medication for approximately 9-11 days. These fertility medications consist of naturally occurring hormones that help develop and mature your follicles (eggs are housed within the follicles). The number of follicles and their size determines how many mature eggs will be available for retrieval. During this time, you should plan to be in your fertility clinic office approximately every other day for "morning monitoring," which includes a vaginal ultrasound and bloodwork to monitor your progress.
3. Egg retrieval is a same-day procedure where eggs are extracted from the ovarian follicles and sent to an IVF lab to fertilize and divide. Illume Fertility monitors the growth of the embryos in our own lab onsite. An embryologist cares for them and watches them divide and multiply for five days, at which point they transition from the "zygote" stage to the "blastocyst" stage. Research supports that transferring embryos into the uterus at the blastocyst stage yields higher success rates than transferring them on day three (when they're still in the less mature "zygote" stage).
4. After fertilization, the embryo will be transferred back to the uterus on day five. (Egg retrieval day is considered day zero.) The embryo transfer is a same-day procedure that should take approximately 20 to 30 minutes. You will be awake for this painless procedure, and you will not require any anesthesia. Following this is a waiting period to see if the embryo implants in the uterus, which typically takes 9-10 days depending on the maturity of the embryo at the time of transfer.

During the ovarian stimulation phase of your IVF treatment cycle, you will typically come in for two appointments to measure the readiness of your follicles (eggs) and hormone levels via ultrasound and bloodwork. Once your follicles are mature, your doctor will instruct you to take your HCG trigger shot, and return 24-36 hours later for your egg retrieval.

In addition to our expert physician team and award-winning IVF lab, we offer both secure cryopreservation and a surgical suite onsite, Elective Single Embryo Transfer (ESET), Preimplantation Genetic Testing (PGT) and holistic IVF support from our Integrated Fertility and Wellness program to ensure you have the best chance of success.