Glossary of Terms

INITIATED CYCLES

Once fertility medication has been administered during a treatment cycle, the cycle is said to have been initiated. Some cycles may be cancelled prior to this point and are not included in these calculations.

GIVF’s cycle cancellation rate is lower than most programs, so that more of our initiated cycles proceed to retrieval.

INTRACYTOPLASMIC SPERM INJECTION (ICSI)

A laboratory procedure in which a single sperm is injected directly into an egg cell for the purpose of achieving fertilization.

PREGNANCY

Two successive rising blood pregnancy tests (beta) following an embryo transfer indicate a pregnancy.

EMBRYO TRANSFER

There are two types of embryo transfers: fresh and frozen. A fresh embryo transfer takes place as a result of a full IVF cycle and the embryo has not been cryopreserved (frozen) and thawed.

A frozen embryo transfer refers to the transfer of an embryo that has been cryopreserved (frozen) and thawed for transfer into the uterus. This procedure can take place weeks, months or years after the original IVF or donor egg IVF cycle. Some patients may, therefore, have only one full IVF cycle, but produce enough embryos to achieve more than one successful pregnancy through frozen embryo transfer cycles, which are much easier to undergo than full IVF. GIVF has a particular expertise in embryo freezing.

PREGNANCY RATE PER TRANSFER

The percentage of pregnancies that result per embryo transfer.

ONGOING AND DELIVERED PREGNANCY RATE PER EMBRYO TRANSFER

The ongoing and delivered pregnancy rate per transfer provides a good indication of the likelihood of actually bringing a baby home. It therefore may be more useful to patients than “the pregnancy per embryo transfer” statistic, which reflects pregnancies at an early stage, but does not indicate whether they continue.

IN VITRO FERTILIZATION (IVF)

A laboratory procedure in which fertilization is attempted by placing many sperm cells in a media droplet with unfertilized eggs. The resulting embryos can subsequently be transferred into the uterus or cryopreserved for future use.

DONOR EGG IVF

A donor egg IVF cycle is an IVF cycle in which the eggs from a donor (either anonymous or known) are used instead of a patient’s own eggs. Donor eggs may be combined with a male partner’s sperm or with donor perm. Donor egg IVF is extraordinarily successful in overcoming age-related infertility, diminished ovarian reserve and other infertility problems and allows women who might not be able to conceive with their own eggs to experience the joys of pregnancy and birth. GIVF has one of the world’s oldest and largest donor egg IVF programs.