9 days towards 9 months

A couple after facing all odds finally come knocking the door of medicine and technology to fulfill the dream of having a child, they keep their fingers crossed till the time they finally get to see the child in their lap. After taking all the steps towards conceiving, one must be wondering how the IVF treatment gets completed. Medically, a cycle begins from the times she’s given fertility drugs and her menstrual cycle is monitored. The cycle ends when the embryo prepared in vitro is transferred to the uterus of the woman. With all the trust over the doctors, patients do not question the doctor anything about the procedure. But since it’s a major step taken by them, they should be aware of the crucial information about all the whats and hows of procedure post embryo transfer.

The procedure usually takes nine days to complete. These nine days are no less momentous than the nine months of pregnancy.

Day 1: The cells keep dividing once the embryo is transferred. The blastocyst begins to get hatched from its shell and the growth continues.

Day 2: This is a big day as this is the day when the embryo begins to get itself attached to the uterine lining. The blastocyst keeps growing and hatching out of its shell. This day decides the success or failure of the cycle as if implantation occurs, it occurs on this day, if missed, leads to the failure of the cycle.

Day 3: The blastocyst gets attached much deeper into the uterine lining and implantation begins. The woman might experience light bleeding and spotting on this day.

Day 4: The blastocyst continues to get attached deeper into the uterus and implantation continues. Light spotting and bleeding may continue to this day as well. In case it had not occurred before, spotting and bleeding may start on this day. However, the absence of any bleeding, cramping and spotting does not mean that implantation has not occurred.

Day 5: Implantation is considered to be completed. The embryo starts to develop rigorously from this day. When implantation gets completed, the procedure jumps to the next step, the fetus begins to develop and the cells that eventually form the placenta also start to grow and develop.

Day 6: The growing embryo set off the release of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) into the blood stream. hCG is a hormone that is produced by the syncytiotrophoblast – the placenta in the developing fetus, immediately after implantation.

Day 7: The fetal development starts to take place in full swing from this day and the embryo continues to develop quickly. As the placenta begins to take shape, more hCG gets released into the blood stream.

Day 8: More hCG gets released into the blood, as fetal development continues and the placenta begins to function. The neural tube of the baby begins to sprout and the fetal development paces up. Baby now be grows in leaps and bounds.

Day 9: The levels of hCG are high enough now in the blood stream to be detected. The woman can take a pregnancy test on this day. If the test results to be negative, it could be false. In this case, one should wait for another two days and take the test again. The IVF egg implantation procedure comes to a close now. One must see the expert who can check for the viability of pregnancy, monitor the heart rate and the growth of the fetus.