The cost of traditional IVF fertility treatment can delay or at times prevent patients from pursuing their dreams of starting a family. INVOCELL is an innovative option used in fertility treatment that was designed to consider your concerns about the cost of treatment, and offer you another option on your fertility journey. With INVOCELL, you may need less ovarian stimulation and fewer monitoring visits, which could reduce some of the costs of treatment.
INVOCELL is an Intravaginal Culture System and consists of the INVOCELL culture and retention devices. The first and only FDA-cleared device of its kind used in fertility treatment, INVOCELL uses your body as an incubator for fertilization, making you an even greater part of the process, while also addressing some of the personal or religious concerns that might be associated with your fertility treatment.
Before INVOCELL is placed in your body, your doctor will prescribe medication to help your body produce eggs. Your doctor will retrieve the eggs from your ovaries and place them in the INVOCELL culture device with sperm, to let them fertilize and incubate in your body. After the incubation period, the device will be removed from your body, and your doctor will examine the embryos that have developed. Then you will work with your doctor to decide on the number of embryos to be transferred to your uterus. And the good news is, you can freeze any remaining embryos. In a clinical trial studying the use of INVOCELL involving 421 embryo transfer cycles, about 1 in 4 resulted in a birth.
While INVOCELL may be an attractive option, there are certain requirements that must be met in order to pursue this treatment. Once INVOCELL is placed in your body, you must avoid any strenuous activity or any activity that could change the temperature in your vagina. A patient should be between the ages of 21 and 37 with a BMI between 18 and 30. If male factor is contributing to infertility, it should not be included in this process. INVOCELL is not covered by insurance, and the cost for the initial consult, diagnostic testing, medications, and embryo cryopreservation and storage are not included. Make sure to ask your questions, voice your concerns, and discuss with your doctor what is right for you.
