The only outcome IVF patients care about is whether they get a healthy baby as a result of their treatment. Yes, this is the only clinical outcome that actually matters , but we also need to remember that this final outcome is not something that is in the doctor’s control . After all, the only thing an IVF doctor can do is make top-quality embryos in the IVF lab , and then transfer them back into the uterus . After he has done this, he cannot control or predict which embryo will become a baby , because embryo implantation is still a biological black box area , over which we have no control .
This is why we need to separate the outcome of an IVF cycle into two compartments. The first is the production of good-quality embryos , which is directly dependent on the experience and expertise of the IVF Clinic . This is a tangible outcome that can be documented by looking at photographs of embryos , and if the doctor has made top quality blastocysts for you , and shared photographs of these, this means that the medical outcome of the IVF cycle has been good. This is the first leg of the IVF treatment , which is within the doctor’s control , and should give you peace of mind that you have received top-quality medical care . However , the second leg of IVF treatment ,which starts after the embryos have been transferred into the uterus , is an area over which no one has any control . This is something that both doctors and patients need to accept with a certain degree of humility . Part of the problem is that both doctors and patients are uncomfortable with this lack of control ! Patients want definitive answers , and doctors would also like to be able to ensure that every embryo they transfer does become a baby . This is why many doctors use lots of expensive and experimental procedures , such as PGD, ERA and immune testing , in the attempt to increase the chances of the embryo implanting , but the fact of the matter is that these are unproven procedures , which should only be done in a research setting , and not in a clinic , because they haven’t been proven to help, and haven’t been subjected to controlled clinical trials.
However , doctors do these all the time because they can charge their patients a lot of money to do these procedures, and desperate, ignorant, gullible patients are happy to pay for whatever the doctor tells them to do if they feel this will improve their success rates. In fact, many naïve patients believe that if the procedure is new and expensive , it must be better ! However, these new techniques are unproven because they haven’t stood the test of time.
We need to accept that while there are many things in our control , the final outcome of whether the embryos will implant or not is not something that we can do anything about , because this is a complex biological process which is still beyond our understanding.
And the last and final leg of the fertility journey is pregnancy and childbirth—and this is a completely different leg of your path toward becoming a parent !
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