IVF involves a number of key steps. These include ovarian stimulation where a woman takes fertility drugs, usually in the form of daily injections, to stimulate her ovaries to produce multiple eggs. The woman is then sedated and the eggs are retrieved. The aim is to collect between 8 and 10 eggs but some women will have more and some will have less.

Once the eggs are collected they are mixed with the sperm in the lab and left to incubate in the hope that the eggs will fertilize and form embryos. Meanwhile, the woman also takes other fertility drugs to build up the lining of her womb so it is ready to receive and accommodate the resulting embryos.

In IVF with donor eggs, the process is exactly the same except that the donor undergoes ovarian stimulation and egg collection. The donor eggs are then mixed with the male partner’s sperm and the embryo transferred into the woman’s womb.