Egg Fertilization & Embryo Culture

The male partner provides the laboratory with a semen specimen to be used for fertilization of the eggs, except if donor or frozen sperm is used.

In cases of normal sperm function, the eggs and several thousand sperm are placed together in a dish which contains a nutrient liquid. These dishes are kept in an incubator overnight and are examined under the microscope on the morning after the egg retrieval to determine which eggs have fertilized normally.