Single Women & Fertility

IVF – In Vitro Fertilisation – is the process of bringing eggs and sperm together in a carefully controlled environment to generate high-quality embryos.

In natural conception, the sperm and egg meet in the fallopian tube and begin the process of fertilisation. Physical, endocrine, and immune problems can prevent fertilisation from happening this way. Using IVF to introduce the sperm to the eggs in a carefully controlled environment can overcome these problems to create an embryo.

At our East of England clinics including Cambridge, Colchester, Norwich and Wickford, ovarian function and reserve tests, sometimes known as an ‘egg count’, involving blood tests and ultrasound imaging of your ovaries, tells us a lot about your fertility.

Women are born with a finite number of eggs that are stored in the ovaries. Over time, these are released until the stock runs out (the menopause). The quality of the egg also diminishes as stock levels decline.

In order to gain an accurate picture of your stock of eggs, we perform a number of blood tests and an ultrasound assessment of your ovaries.

The blood tests measure Anti-Müllerian Hormone (AMH) – to provide guidance on natural conception, your potential egg count from fertility treatments, and how well your ovaries are likely to respond to different medication regimes – Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH), Luteinising Hormone (LH), and Estradiol. Progesterone (P4) is also measured to assess whether the eggs are being released at the right time.

The ultrasound assessment tells you how many immature follicles – structures containing potential eggs – are visible in the ovary, giving an estimation of stock levels. While we are performing this test, we will also evaluate any problems or abnormalities in your uterus and its lining, as well as around your reproductive organs.

For more information about our female fertility tests, please contact our one of our East of England clinics, including those at Cambridge, Colchester, Norwich, and Wickford.

You may wish to begin your IVF journey by attending one of our free open events. These involve a short presentation about our clinics, our success rates and the treatments available.

To find out the treatment that is most suitable you will need to book a fertility doctor consultation. In your consultation, our doctor will analyse the results from any tests you may have already had, assess your medical background, talk through your treatment options and prepare a personalised treatment plan.

If you have not yet had diagnostic tests, this is not a problem. The consultant can still give you bespoke advice and put in place a provisional plan. We will arrange a safe and convenient time for you to visit one of our clinics to perform any necessary tests in one appointment, and refine the plan accordingly.

Relevant fertility tests may include blood tests to check your hormone levels, a semen analysis to look at sperm health, and an ultrasound scan of your pelvis.

Under normal circumstances, ovulation occurs once a month when a ripened egg which is ready to be fertilised is released from the ovaries. For couples who are trying to conceive, regular ovulation is incredibly important as this is when a woman is most fertile. If a woman isn’t ovulating properly, fertility drugs can be prescribed in order to boost the natural system and increase the chances of successful conception.

This leaflet provides an overview of how fertility drugs are used during your treatment.

An embryo starts as a single cell and then divides continually. Usually at day four an embryo has eight cells; the embryo will be graded from 1-4 (4 is the best) based on how evenly the cells have divided and how many fragments are left behind (less is better). Both of these indicators are helpful in judging which embryo has the highest chance of implanting into your uterus.