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In vitro fertilization or Test Tube Babies gives hope to those couples that cannot have babies. It's a positive thing if it is suitable for you, and the way in which a couple are tested to see if they are suitable. Reasons that they may not be capable of producing a baby can be far stretching, and sometimes, as in my case, the fallopian tubes seemed to be at fault.

This topic asks the cost of in vitro fertilization, and there really are two ways of looking at cost. The financial costs in the UK do not apply in public hospitals. If you are a candidate for the procedure the actual procedure is free.

The cost to the couple can be enormous, and really does have to be taken into account at the time of taking the chance that this type of fertilization will work for you. You are asked to keep charts, and to accurately pinpoint times in the month when eggs are being produced, i.e. Ovulation. Although this can be gaged by your monthly periods, it may be necessary to fine tune the timing by a short stay in hospital.
A couple that are infertile already have the stress factor of pressures from family, expectations from friends, and to add to this, the psychological cost of going through a procedure that really only has a 37 per cent success rate does make having the procedure questionable. My in vitro fertilization wasn't completed, although the stages that lead up to it scared me and my husband. It was as if we were forcing ourselves into an unnatural procedure because we were ready to become parents, and I can honestly say that even though it was always pointed out from the beginning that the success rate was low, what happens to couples in this situation is that you do not believe figures. You want to believe it works.

The successes of operations such as this are well publicized, although the failures are much less talked about. Why ? If you met a person that underwent all the preparation, that lived on hope and prayers that they could have a baby, went through the undignified experience of having their extracted egg fertilized in the petri dish with that of their husbands, and then unceremoniously planted inside your womb, you may understand the stresses and worries involved. The woman hopes against hope that it will work. The couple are under enormous strain, and will have been trying for a very long time to have a child.

One of the ladies that I was in hospital with went through hell. They took extra eggs so that there could be more than one attempt. The first attempt

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