The IVF Laboratory is one of the most important aspects of a successful IVF program and fertility center.

The IVF Laboratory should be directed by an on site Ph.D with special training in human embryology. The laboratory should be staffed by experienced embryologists. The laboratory should have a long proven track record of excellent success. The lab should have detailed processes and checklists in place for quality control .

You want an IVF laboratory that is operating full time to take care of your eggs, sperm or embryos. If the laboratory is only open for one or two weeks a month you may not be able to proceed with your IVF cycle when you want to. What happens if your eggs are ready but the laboratory is not open? What if you are not planning on doing IVF, but while doing an IUI cycle your ovaries produce too many follicles to safely proceed with IUI? If the IVF lab is always operational, the cycle could be converted to IVF. If the lab is only open one or two weeks out of the month and you produce too many eggs in an IUI cycle when the lab is not “open” your cycle will need to be cancelled.

The IVF lab should be a full service IVF lab, not just doing basic IVF, but it should have the ability to do more complicated laboratory procedures like embryo biopsy for PGD, and egg freezing. What if the day of your egg retrieval, your partner is unable to produce a sperm sample? If the lab can do egg freezing the cycle is not lost.

Make sure that when you chose an IVF center, that the laboratory is a full time, full service IVF laboratory.