What are the side effects of IVF?

IVF treatment itself is an outpatient, really well established procedure now. But there are some associated side effects with the drugs that women take, because whenever you take drugs, everybody responds differently and there can always be side effects to it. We give drugs to stimulate the ovaries to produce eggs in most cases because that is the most efficient way of achieving a successful IVF. And I must be absolutely clear here, although there are always different ways to do things, an IVF cycle is about trying to give a couple their best chance of a live birth in a single attempt. So we have to do everything we can in that one cycle. And this generally requires the administration of some drugs to produce eggs because it's the most efficient way to do it. There are some side effects to those drugs. Almost invariably they're minor side effects in terms of taking the drugs. There might be some mood swings, some headaches, whatever. The biggest side effect is when the ovary over response, we call it ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome. Now normally it's mild, but all of the time it can be predicted by the clinics observing the woman, mainly through ultrasound, being able to see how many follicles, which are the little sacs that contain the eggs are growing, and normally it can be averted. Sometimes if an embryo is transferred when the ovarian hyperstimulation is a possibility, this can exacerbate the problem, and ovarian hyperstimulation then can become a serious condition. But thankfully it's extremely rare. In terms of any other side effects, then there are very few that are related to collection of the eggs itself. There is a very small chance, because one uses a needle to go into the ovary to remove the eggs, of a potential infection. Whenever one breaks the skin, there's always a chance of an infection, very rare, but it could also happen. Apart from that, it really is an outpatient procedure, in any event.