This is the procedure in which the embryo, ideally in blastocyst stage, is transferred or placed inside the uterine cavity. This procedure, as shown in the video, is performed introducing a thin catheter carrying the embryo, through the cervix. The embryo is left in the uterine cavity.
It is important to distinguish embryo transfer from the biological process called embryo implantation. As mentioned before, transfer only aims at placing the embryo, which was in an incubator, into the woman’s uterus, whose endometrium (inner uterine layer or tissue) is suitably prepared.
Implantation is a sequence of biological processes that the blastocyst performs in order to hatch from its outer cell layer (zona pellucida) and penetrate the internal uterine layer (endometrium). Only then does the embryo establish cellular contact with its host (the woman), and they begin a nourishing exchange of signals between both genetically different individuals, who will live together for the following 9 months.
The Latin American Registry of Assisted Reproduction (RLA) thanks the 204 institutions accredited by REDLARA which, every year, report their data to RLA.
This voluntary and rigorous contribution makes it possible to generate a powerful database, which helps doctors and patients take decisions based on the best existing regional evidence.
This educational portal is the result of a collaborative activity between the Latin American Network of Assisted Reproduction (REDLARA), and University Diego Portales from Chile, which allow the link between the reproductive science and technology advances with the needs of people suffering from infertility and other forms of reproductive impairments.
We thank Dr. Ariel Ahumanda and Dr. Gustavo Martínez from Argentina for: images and videos of spontaneous in vitro fertilization, ICSI and PGT,
Dr. Roger Molinas from Paraguay for: videos of follicular aspiration and embryo transfer,
Dr. Javier Crosby from Chile for: images of different stages of in vitro embryo development,
Dr. Yasuyuki Mio from Japan for his video of in vitro embryo development.
We especially thank the industry for providing the financial support, which is so necessary to keep the Latin American registry as a pillar of this international cooperation, which today includes 16 countries and more than 200 collaborative institutions, from Mexico in the north to Chile in the far south.
