Stimulating Ovaries for Eggs Production
A combination of drugs is prescribed to stimulate the ovaries to produce eggs. There are several treatment regimes for ovulation induction and the most common regime practiced at Genesis IVF is to ‘down regulate’ or ‘switch off’ the hormonal signals sent from your brain to your ovaries.
You will be provided with a complete instructions’ sheet on how to administer all of your drugs. After down regulation is achieved, Gonal-F is to be self-administered subcutaneously by injection, to help stimulate the ovaries to produce multiple follicles whereby the majority of which will contain eggs.
Towards the end of the treatment cycle, you will be asked to self-administer a one-off dose of recombinant choriogonadotrophin alfa in the form of ‘Ovidrel’. This is also called the ‘HCG injection’. This is used to induce the final maturation of the eggs in the follicles and is again administered subcutaneously by self-injection. You will be prescribed a progesterone supplement to help support the embryo after your embryo transfer. This will usually be in the form of a vaginal gel or vaginal pessaries.
Other drugs may be introduced into the treatment depending on individual requirements.