Reproductive Art
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List of Services

  1. Gestational Surrogacy
    A woman who carries a pregnancy produced by an embryo that is not genetically related to her and then returns the child to its genetic parents at birth.
  2. Hepatitis B and C Positive Patients
    IVF Canada has a separate laboratory and storage facility to accommodate Hepatitis B and C carriers.
  3. Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis
    When considering treatment for the purposes of Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD), it is not possible for us to identify the exact costs until we know which disease is being diagnosed.

    PGD technique which utilizes in vitro fertilization (IVF with ICSI) to produce a number of normally fertilized embryos for genetic screening; the embryos are then biospsied to determine which are free of the genetic disease of concern.  If they are available, only unaffected embryos are transferred.

    Recently, IVF Canada has entered into an arrangement with the McGill Reproductive Centre (MRC) in Montreal to provide the necessary PGD diagnostic services.  By using this service, patients are able to have their eggs recovered and biopsied at IVF Canada and the genetic material for diagnosis sent immediately to MRC in Montreal. By using this service, patients can have PGD without having to travel to another city.

    IVF Canada is now accepting referrals for PGD.  Anyone needing this service will need to have had a complete genetic diagnosis and counselling before proceeding with treatment. After your consultation with our physician, we will be in a better position to more clearly identify the fees that will apply.
  4. Diode Laser for Assisted Hatching
    Only a small percentage of human embryos transferred into the uterus after in vitro fertilization complete their initial stages of implantation.  This low implantation rate has been attributed to several factors, such as hatching failure of an otherwise healthy blastocyst.
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    Assisted hatching (AH) involves microdissection of the zona pellucida (shell), prior to embryo transfer, in order to facilitate the hatching of the embryo from its protective envelope and thereby improve the odds of uterine implantation.  A new tool that was developed for microdissecting the zona pellucida, the diode laser, is now available at IVF Canada to thin or fully open the zona pellucida (ZP).

    Further research is needed to provide absolute proof that AH significantly increases the chance of pregnancy.  Many multi-centre studies are currently running and tend to show that AH is beneficial for selected patients.
    The mechanical methods previously used required great technical expertise, acid solution and were not as safe to perform as drilling the ZP using a laser system.  Lasers represent ideal tools for microprocedures due to the fact that they allow reproducible generation of holes of controlled size, induce no deletrous mechanical, thermal or mutagenic side effects.  Safe, simple and rapid is a good description of the new diode laser for assisted hatching.
  5. Epididymal Sperm Aspiration/Testicular Biopsies
    A procedure whereby sperm are aspirated microsurgically directly from the epididymis in the testes or by biopsy of the testes from which sperm are recovered.
  6. ZIFT (Zygote Intrafallopian Transfer)
    A procedure where fertilized eggs are transferred into the fallopian tube.
  7. TET (Tubal Embryo Transfer)
    A procedure where embryos are transferred into the fallopian tubes.
  8. BLASTOCYST
    A procedure where embryos are cultured to day 5 or 6 (rather than the standard day 2 or 3) to allow further cell division and natural selection before transfer to the uterus or womb.