At your first visit to our assisted reproduction clinics the doctor begins with a review of your medical record, your reproductive history and any treatments that you have received or are currently undergoing. The doctor will be able to decide what additional tests are advisable, and whether a gynaecological examination is necessary.
If the doctor has all the information necessary, he or she will specify the fertility treatment to be carried out, the medication necessary, and the possible complementary tests to the treatment. It is possible that the doctor may need to have certain results before specifying the treatment.
At the end of the consultation, the Patient Service Department will give you a detailed budget that will include both the necessary assisted reproduction techniques and the prior analyses and tests required by the doctor.
Once you have had your first visit and you have all of the necessary documents and information, if you have any questions or concerns the professionals from the centre will be at your disposal to clarify any issues that you might have.
After a year of regular sexual relations without achieving pregnancy, you might begin to suspect that there is some kind of problem. Obviously, you must not use any kind of protection during sex. For older women, we recommend that you go for a consultation when six months of sexual relations have failed to result in a pregnancy.
Are you currently a patient, or have you been a patient, at an IVI clinic? Have you ever previously had treatment at another centre? Have you had any tests done? If you have the results, you should bring them with you on your first visit. What province are you calling from?
When you come to our assisted reproduction clinics for the first time you should bring any previous test results or reports that you have, as well as your passport or identity card.
If you live outside the city, it is possible that on the day of your first visit a spermiogram will be carried out to evaluate your semen and avoid the need for coming back to the clinic on another occasion. This test is necessary to enable the doctor to make a diagnosis in your particular case. Even if you have already had one done, we need to do one in our clinic as the result of the test can vary depending on the procedure used for analysing the sample. In order for us to carry out this test, the patient needs to come to the clinic following a period of sexual abstinence of three to five days.
The tests for diagnosing infertility include a complete medical history and physical examination of both members of the couple. In the case of the woman, the basic tests are a basal hormone study, an ultrasound scan and a hysterosalpingography, although the range of tests can be extended depending on the patient. To complete the diagnosis it will also be necessary to assess semen quality in the man via a seminogram test.
There is no waiting list for any treatment. In many assisted reproduction centres there is a waiting list for treatment involving ova donation. This is not the case at IVI. Our clinics have the largest egg bank in the world, allowing gametes to be assigned almost immediately.