What is in vitro fertilization (IVF)?

JOHN JAIN: So with in vitro fertilization, it really starts with a woman's period. That's when all the new eggs are ready to go. [CHILL MUSIC]

We often keep those eggs from growing by giving birth control pills or maybe injections of a medicine called leuprolide acetate.

The point being, we want to keep them all on the same starting line. Once we've achieved that over a two or three week period,

we then enter the phase of ovarian stimulation. This is done with hormonal injections of the hormone FSH,

daily injections for about 10 to 12 days and four or five visits to my office to monitor the growth of the egg follicles,

to measure the estrogen level, and to make sure the woman is on the right dose. At the end of those 10 to 12 days, we trigger the final maturation of the egg follicle

with a second shot. We then take the patient to the operating room where she undergoes IV anesthesia. That's in her veins.

She's sleeping during the process and a needle is passed through the vagina into the ovary and directly into the egg follicle

where it suctions out the egg. The egg is immediately handed to the embryologist who finds the egg and then injects it with sperm

or puts the egg, actually, in a little Petri dish with thousands of sperm. We look at the next day to see if we have fertilized eggs,

now called embryos, and allow those embryos to grow anywhere from two to five days before transferring them back

to the woman's uterus. That's a painless procedure done in the office. It's like a pap smear where we put a soft plastic catheter directly into the uterus with the embryos.

Seven to 12 days later, we find out if the woman is pregnant. [AUDIO LOGO]