If you are suffering from infertility problem, just keep in mind one thing that you are not alone. Treatments such as IVF, ICSI, fertility drugs can help you overcome infertility problems Infertility is a social stigma and affects a large number of people. The number of couples suffering from fertility problems has increased. There are several reasons for infertility such as women’s wish to delay the pregnancy due to career and educational demands, desire for financial stability, etc. Adding to the problem is infertility disorder in men, which is also on the rise. What is IVF treatment procedure and how do I know if I need it? In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) is an Assisted Reproduction Technique (ART), in which union of eggs and sperms is done in a laboratory dish. After fertilisation, the resulting embryo is then transferred to the woman’s uterus. It involves five basic steps which are super ovulation (stimulating the development of more than one egg in a cycle), egg retrieval, fertilisation, embryo culture and embryo transfer.Generally, IVF treatment is indicated in couples where wife has fallopian tube blockage/damage, poor ovarian reserve, endometriosis, cervical factors or ovulatory disorders, or if the husband has problems in production/transport of healthy sperms with poor/even nil sperm count (through sperm retrieval techniques like TESA). Are IVF and ICSI different? Traditional IVF technique works on the fusion of sperms with egg. IVF can be normally performed for sperm counts, which are more than 5 million per ml. For counts less than 5 million per ml, Intra Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) is a better option. In case of low sperm count, an IVF treatment procedure becomes a rare possibility as only one sperm will be able to penetrate the egg and if the number of sperms are low the chances reduce gradually. However, with ICSI, one can inject single sperm by handling the fertilised egg in-vitro, which enables the use of single viable sperm. What are the latest techniques available to help couples with recurrent IVF/ICSI failure? Assisted Laser Hatching: A cut is made on the zona using an eight micron laser beam when the embryos are at four cell (Day 2), six-eight cell (Day 3) stage or blastocyst stage and embryos are placed back in the womb. The cut (called Assisted Hatching) weakens the zona and helps in the hatching process which results in better pregnancy rates. Intracytoplasmic Morphologically Selected Sperm Injection (IMSI): Patients with low sperm count can opt for IMSI technique in which sperms are magnified to 6600 times which gives us the option to choose good sperms from the bad ones. Embryoscope: Embryoscope technology contributes to improving success rate by monitoring the development of embryos and identifying the healthiest embryo to be implanted in the womb for achieving pregnancy. Sequential Transfer: In this technique two embryos are transferred on Day 3. The remaining embryos are cultured to Day 5. If blastocyst develops on Day 5, an additional Blastocyst is transferred on Day 5.