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Ever felt like you needed a medical dictionary just to follow a conversation at your fertility clinic? You’re not alone. Between abbreviations, scientific jargon, and complex terms, navigating fertility treatment can feel like learning a whole new language. But it doesn't have to be that way.
Whether you're starting your IVF journey, exploring ICSI, or reading your lab report, understanding the terminology can empower you and reduce anxiety. In this guide, we’ll decode the most commonly used fertility lab terms into plain, easy-to-understand language—so you can feel confident, informed, and in control every step of the way.
IVF stands for In Vitro Fertilization. It’s a process where eggs and sperm are combined outside the body in a laboratory dish to create embryos. After fertilization, one or more embryos are placed into the uterus in hopes of achieving pregnancy.
Think of IVF as a series of carefully timed steps that include hormone injections to mature multiple eggs, a minor procedure to collect those eggs, fertilising in a lab, and embryo transfer. It’s one of the most well-known fertility treatments and is often used when other options haven’t worked.
ICSI, or Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection, is a technique used during IVF. Instead of mixing eggs and sperm, the embryologist selects a single healthy sperm and injects it directly into an egg.
ICSI is especially helpful in cases of male infertility, for instance, low sperm count or poor motility. It increases the chances of fertilization when natural sperm-egg binding might be a challenge.
This is the moment everyone waits for—the transfer of one or more fertilized embryos into the uterus. It’s a simple, outpatient procedure that doesn’t require anaesthesia.
Depending on your treatment plan, the embryo transfer might happen a few days after egg retrieval (fresh transfer) or later using a previously frozen embryo (frozen embryo transfer or FET). Success depends on embryo quality, uterine health, and timing.
A blastocyst is an embryo that’s about five to six days old. It’s reached a more advanced stage of development and contains hundreds of cells. At this stage, embryos are more likely to implant successfully in the uterus.
Transferring blastocysts (instead of earlier-stage embryos) often leads to higher pregnancy rates. Clinics may choose the best-quality blastocyst for transfer or freezing.
This is the first big step in IVF. Fertility medications—usually hormone injections—are used to stimulate the ovaries to produce multiple eggs in one cycle (as opposed to the one egg typically released in a natural cycle).
The goal is to produce several mature eggs, increasing the chances of successful fertilization. The stimulation phase usually lasts 8–12 days, during which your doctor will monitor your hormone levels and follicle growth closely.
Once the eggs are mature, they’re collected through a procedure called egg retrieval or egg collection. It’s done under light sedation or anaesthesia and takes about 20–30 minutes.
Using ultrasound guidance, a thin needle is inserted through the vaginal wall into the ovaries to suction out the eggs. It’s a quick process, and you can usually go home the same day. These eggs are then passed on to the lab for fertilization.
The fertilization rate tells you how many of your retrieved eggs successfully joined with sperm to form embryos. For example, if 10 eggs were collected and 7 fertilized, the fertilization rate is 70%.
It’s a key indicator of egg and sperm quality, as well as the effectiveness of techniques like ICSI. However, not all fertilized eggs will develop into viable embryos, so this is just one step in the larger IVF journey.
Each embryo is graded based on its appearance and development. This process helps embryologists choose the best embryo for transfer or freezing.
Grading considers:
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Cryopreservation allows embryos that aren’t transferred during a fresh IVF cycle to be frozen for future use. These embryos are stored at very low temperatures using a technique called vitrification.
Benefits include:
Preimplantation Genetic Testing (PGT) screens embryos for genetic abnormalities before they are transferred into the uterus. This helps identify the healthiest embryos and reduce the risk of miscarriage or genetic disorders.
There are three main types:
Beta hCG is the hormone measured to confirm pregnancy after an embryo transfer. A blood test is typically done 9 to 14 days post-transfer to check levels of this hormone.
After embryo transfer, you’ll often be prescribed hormones—usually progesterone—to support the luteal phase of your cycle. This is the time between ovulation (or egg retrieval) and your pregnancy test.
Progesterone helps thicken the uterine lining, making it more receptive to an implanting embryo. It's given through:
AMH is a hormone produced by small follicles in the ovaries and is one of the most reliable markers of ovarian reserve—how many eggs you have left.
Understanding fertility terminology transforms confusion into clarity. When you know what your doctor or lab technician is talking about, you feel more empowered, more in control, and less anxious. Whether you're navigating IVF, exploring ICSI, or just interpreting your test results, this fertility "lingo" is now part of your toolkit.
At Maaeri Fertility and IVF Centre, we believe that informed patients are confident patients. That’s why we take the time to explain every step of your fertility journey in plain language—because you deserve to know exactly what’s happening and why.
