There are many couples who struggle to conceive. In fact, infertility is much more common than many people realize. It is not as simple as it used to be for many couples to get a baby. For some, they need medications to help them to convenience, while others need full on procedures. One of the most common procedures is in vitro fertilization. Here are some things you need to know about this process:

Who Qualifies For In Vitro Fertilization?

If you are struggling to get pregnant, you may be a good candidate. Usually, when you meet with the doctor, they will ask that you try to get pregnant, without any medical assistance, for at least a couple months, if not a year or two (depending on your age) before you consider in vitro. They also might help with some education to see if there are things you could do to improve your chances of getting pregnant, such as ovulation tests, timing, and so forth.

If after a good amount of time you still don't get pregnant, they will explore the reasons why. Perhaps the man has low sperm count, or the woman isn't ovulating regularly. In this case, they may try some different medications. However, if the reason is something that cannot be fixed with medication, they will start to explore in vitro.

You get to choose if you want to do in vitro or not. Most of the time you pay out of pocket, so the doctor will leave it up to you. This means that you could ask to do it at your first appointment, or you can wait. Since there is no guarantee to the procedure, it is at your own risk, and your own money, so generally you get to choose when you are ready to try it.

What Is In Vitro?

In vitro is when the doctor will fertilize the egg outside the body, grow the cell and then re-implant it into the woman's body already growing. In order to make this work, the woman has to take a lot of hormone injections to make her body produce more eggs to harvest. Then once the eggs are harvested, she will need to continue hormones to get her body for the implanting. It can make you sick, gain weight, get mood swings, just like a normal pregnancy. The man will have to produce a sperm sample that will be used for the fertilization.

By understanding these things, you can determine if in vitro fertilization is right for you.