What to Expect during Gamete Intrafallopian Transfer (GIFT) Procedure

Gamete intrafallopian transfer (GIFT) is a fertility treatment to help women and couples conceive. It's not as effective as some other fertility treatments, but offers a a chance for a process closer to natural conception. If you decide to undergo this procedure, you should prepare yourself by knowing what to expect.

Medication for Egg Stimulation

After deciding to undergo gamete intrafallopian transfer, your fertility specialist will put you on fertility medication to stimulate egg production beginning about six weeks before the procedure. The objective is for you to release multiple eggs during your next menstrual cycle so there will be more to harvest to increase your chances of successful pregnancy.

Hormonal Injections

Approximately 1 1/2 days before your scheduled surgical treatment, your fertility specialist will inject you with a hormone to stimulate pregnancy that is meant to help prepare your body for pregnancy.

Egg Extraction

On the day of the procedure, your fertility specialist will first harvest the released eggs through your vagina. You will be given anesthetics to numb the pain, although you will likely be awake for the entire gamete intrafallopian transfer procedure, and you will feel some discomfort. Using ultrasound across your abdomen to guide her tool, your fertility specialist will insert a thin, vacuum-like instrument up through the vagina and uterus into your fallopian tubes to extract the eggs via suction. Each egg must be extracted one at a time through the follicles in your fallopian tubes. This procedure will be repeated on your other ovary if applicable to increase the number of eggs harvested.

You may experience cramping and bloating after egg extraction, but unlike during in vitro fertilization (IVF) and zygote intrafallopian transfer (ZIFT), you will not be sent home to recover from this procedure while your fertility specialist fertilizes your eggs in a laboratory over the next five to seven days.

Laboratory Mixture

They key difference between gamete intrafallopian transfer and in vitro fertilization and zygote intrafallopian transfer is that your fertility specialist will not artificially inseminate your eggs in a laboratory, then carefully select the most likely fertilized eggs to succeed for implantation. Instead, once the eggs have been harvested, your fertility specialist will head to a laboratory where she will mix your partner's or donor's sperm sample with the harvested eggs. Once this mixture is completed, usually less than an hour after the procedure, your fertility specialist will come back to continue work on you.

Gamete Implantation

Under local anesthesia on your abdomen, your fertility specialist will make a small, clean laparoscopic incision on your abdomen over one of your fallopian tubes (whichever, if either, is healthier). This will be somewhat to the left or right of the center of your uterus. Using a catheter tube, the medical professional will inject the gamete (sperm/egg mixture) directly into your fallopian tubes, where fertilization would naturally take place, before sealing your incision with bandages or liquid stitches. During GIFT, fertilization takes places within the body if successful.

After completing the gamete intrafallopian transfer, your fertility specialist will closely monitor you for signs of a successful pregnancy. Expect to come in frequently to the clinic over the next several weeks so that your specialist can determine the success or failure of the procedure.

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