The quality of the IVF laboratory is one of the most important factors you need to consider when choosing a fertility clinic. Whether your clinic handles the fertility procedures themselves at their in-house lab or outsources them to a hospital laboratory, they must be able to give you the low-down of the lab’s operation. Knowing what to check for and what questions to ask about the IVF laboratory will help make sure you receive the best treatment care possible.
RSMC fertility clinic located in San Diego, California has proven to be a leading IVF care facility in the industry, thanks to our state-of-the-art lab and skilled embryologists. Let us see how you can find the right IVF lab for yourself.
What is an IVF lab?
The IVF (in vitro fertilization) process takes a couple of weeks. Once a patient has self-administered fertility medications and undergone the egg retrieval process, the focus of the IVF cycle shifts to the clinic’s lab. This is where the “IVF” part of your fertility treatment occurs. It’s where fertilization takes place, where the embryos are grown before transfer.
Moreover, this is where highly complex procedures, like assisted hatching, genetic testing, and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) take place. A complete-service IVF lab will be able to freeze and store sperm, eggs, and embryos.
The IVF lab plays an important role in fertility treatment. Hence, it should be paid enough attention as you would do for any other aspect of an IVF clinic. The laboratory is an important factor that determines the success of a cycle.
What makes an IVF laboratory and the IVF fertility clinic great?
There are a lot of things that differentiate an average IVF lab from an exceptional laboratory. This is why it’s important to dig deep by asking questions when weighing up your options.
1. Very experienced and qualified lab director and fertility clinic staff
The embryologists and technicians who will be handling your sperm, eggs, and embryos need to be experienced as the clinical professionals in charge of the fertility treatment. Assisted reproductive technologies (ART) are technically demanding procedures that require the highest levels of expertise, by all means, from all those involved.
As a matter of fact, at our fertility clinic in San Diego, California, we have an expert, full-time director to oversee the end-to-end IVF procedures.
As can be seen, you need to ask about the training and certification. Additionally, find out who operates the laboratory and the qualifications they have. Are they board-certified? Is there any current training and certification process available for the laboratory technicians?
2. Up-to-date laboratory processes and protocols.
How embryos are incubated and stored has an immense impact on how they are going to develop. Moreover, your IVF lab needs to have stringent protocols that govern everything that happens in there. Here are some questions to ask if you are planning to undergo IVF treatment using a fertility clinic in San Diego, California:
- How do they monitor embryo development?
- Does the lab follow best practices?
- Do they stay up to date with the research on reproductive medicine and modify how the lab operates based on the latest findings in embryology?
- What are their standards for ensuring quality in all their tasks?
- How does the laboratory manage their custody protocol for handling sperm, eggs, and embryos?
- How do they make sure that the integrity of the patient’s biological materials is preserved?
3. Top-quality equipment and supplies maintained at the fertility clinic lab
A workplace can only be as good as the tools in there, and this is especially true for an IVF laboratory. Embryology requires highly-sophisticated biomedical tools. A fully-equipped lab will have different types of powerful microscopes, IVF microtools, and cutting-edge embryo incubators.
In addition to that, An embryo needs a set of environmental controls at each development stage for it to grow and develop properly. To find these things out, enquire the following:
- What type of incubators, embryo culture media, and apparatus does the laboratory utilize?
- How have they been tested to know their impact on growing embryos?
- Ask if the laboratory offers advanced options like time-lapse photography incubators, and if yes, can it incubate embryos up to the blastocyst stage?
4. Top-quality Air Filtration System
The quality of air in the IVF lab has a significant impact on the viability and health of embryos. Contaminants may be harmful, and common air impurities like microbes, VOCs (volatile organic compounds), or even perfumes may affect the development of an embryo. Is the embryology lab certified as a clean room, and if yes, then to what degree?
Also, ask about the heating, ventilating, and air conditioning units used in the laboratory. What kind of filters the fertility clinic has installed in their IVF lab? Charcoal and high-efficiency particulate (HEPA) units are the best. How frequently does the air circulate? The units in an embryology lab need to be able to produce enough air pressure so that the air in the room gets replaced at least 20 times in an hour.
5. Careful light & temperature control
Embryos are very sensitive to fluctuations in ambient temperature and light as they grow. Hence, these two factors are extremely important to your IVF success. What measures does the lab have in place to control the embryo’s environment during handling and incubation?
Conclusion
Finding an exceptional IVF laboratory can significantly increase your chances of having a successful fertility treatment. Once you know the things to look for in an embryology lab, feel free and confident to discuss this topic with any fertility clinic you are considering.
We understand that evaluating an IVF lab’s quality can be daunting. The extremely sophisticated science and methods involved may be difficult to comprehend. However, it’s important to understand that you don’t have to know all the ins and outs of assisted reproductive technology to be able to determine whether or not an IVF lab is the right one for your treatment. You only need to ask a couple of questions, so don’t be scared to interview any fertility clinic you are considering.
IVF is a huge financial investment, and you deserve the best possible care at every stage of your fertility treatment. Have more questions regarding the IVF labs and how to choose the right one? Want to see how our IVF fertility clinic in San Diego, California can help you achieve successful pregnancy? Schedule a consultation or visit our website to have a chat with us.
