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The Infertility Marketplace

Terms You Need To Know

By the Federal Trade Commission

In this procedure, a woman's eggs are retrieved and combined with sperm to fertilize in the laboratory. Any fertilized eggs, called embryos, are returned to the uterus.

The steps in IVF are:

• Step 1 - Egg Stimulation
• Step 2 - Egg Retrieval
• Step 3 - Fertilization
• Step 4 - Embryo Transfer

If all goes well, the next two steps are:

• Step 5 - Clinical Pregnancy
• Step 6 - Live Birth

This procedure differs from IVF in that retrieved eggs and sperm are injected into a woman's fallopian tubes where fertilization can take place.

Because fertilization does not take place outside the body, there is no embryo transfer step in GIFT.

This refers to the administration of fertility drugs to a woman to "stimulate" and increase egg production.

This process involves the removal of an egg from the ovaries and follicles for subsequent fertilization through IVF or GIFT.

The retrieved egg is mixed with sperm, after which the egg becomes fertilized and forms what then becomes an embryo.

Want to see more?

• The Infertility Marketplace: How Success Rates Are Advertised
• Dollars and Sense: Affording Infertility Treatment
• The Facts to Relax: Cope With the Stress of Infertility
• Talk about it!