| The heart of the IVF clinic is the IVF laboratory, because this is where the embryos are actually made. The IVF lab is often "off-limits" to patients in most IVF centers, which is why most patients don't have a clue what goes on in the IVF lab.
Here's a guided tour of our IVF lab, to familiarise you with what happens to your eggs and embryos, and how the IVF lab helps you to make a baby.
1. This is the soul of the IVF lab - the CO2 incubator, where fertilisation occurs, and your embryos are carefully grown under controlled conditions, which mimic your body's environment.
2. This is the IVF culture medium, in which embryos are cultured and nourished. Most IVF clinics use ready-made medium, which is quality controlled and extensively tested. We import ours from Vitrolife, one of the world's best companies.
3. Microscopes are the work-horse of the IVF lab, and allow the embryologist to inspect your eggs and embryos. The circular plastic dish on the heated platform of the microscope is a petri dish; and the central well contains the culture medium in which the embryos are grown .You can see what embryos look like under the microscope here.
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4. This is the micromanipulator, where ICSI is performed. It is also used to perform the embryo biopsy when doing PGD. It allows us to visualise the eggs , sperm and embryos because of the high degree of magnification it offers; and also allows us to precisely manipulate the fine pipettes which are used to perform surgery on the egg and embryo !
5. This is the computer-controlled embryo cryopreservation unit , which allows us to freeze and store embryos.
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6. These are liquid nitrogen containers, in which sperm and embryos are frozen and preserved at -196 C.
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