Advanced fertility treatment to maximise chances of conception

Our Services – What is Fertility Treatment?

Fertility Treatment (sometimes known as Assisted Reproductive Treatment, or ART) enhances your chances of conceiving with the assistance of reproductive technologies in an embryology laboratory. Simply put, ART refers to technologies that combine eggs and sperm outside the body.

Who is it for?

We recommend fertility treatment for:

Couples who are struggling to conceive naturally through intercourse.

This can be due to a range of factors, such as not ovulating predictably, having blocked/damaged fallopian tubes, unfavourable sperm parameters or low egg reserve. We suggest having an assessment if you have been trying to conceive for 12 months (if the female partner is <35 y/o) or 6 months (if the female partner is >35). The treatment options depend on the underlying reason why you are struggling to conceive.

Couples who are known to have a condition associated with infertility.

This may be a condition such as tubal surgery/ectopic pregnancy, endometriosis or PCOS, low sperm parameters or vasectomy.

Women who want to achieve pregnancy using frozen eggs.

These eggs can be thawed & fertilised, and the embryo then transferred into your uterus.

No matter where you are in your fertility journey, our team can help.

Our Solutions

At Thrive Fertility, we understand the need for high-quality care that’s accessible. That’s why we prioritise providing affordable services without compromising on excellence, state-of-the-art technology or compassionate patient care.

Explore your options for assisted reproduction with Thrive Fertility:

Natural conception & timed intercourse

After getting to know your history better and learning more about your lifestyle and habits, we can help you understand your fertile window and how to increase your chances of natural conception. Using ultrasound and blood tests, we can advise when you might have the best chance to conceive naturally.

Ovulation Induction

If you’re struggling to get pregnant it may be because you’re not ovulating or not ovulating regularly. There are solutions to promote ovulation to increase the likelihood of conception, such as using oral agents or hormonal injections to achieve ovulation. Monitored with ultrasound scans and blood tests, we can advise when you are ovulating, and when to be sexually active.

Intra-uterine Insemination

Intra-uterine Insemination (IUI) is advised for “mild” male factor subfertility, unexplained infertility, endometriosis and for those who don’t achieve a pregnancy with ovulation induction. The process involves preparing sperm in the laboratory and injecting a small sample of “healthy” sperm into the uterus at the time of ovulation. IUI can be combined with ovulation induction or with a natural cycle. It mimics the natural process, but increases the chance of sperm fertilising an egg within your body.

IVF/ICSI

With in vitro fertilisation (IVF), the eggs and sperm are combined within the laboratory. Both IVF/ICSI requires hormonal injections to stimulate egg growth and a surgical procedure to collect the eggs (under anaesthesia). Once the eggs are retrieved, they are combined with the sperm in the laboratory. In conventional IVF, the sperm fertilise the eggs “naturally”. In ICSI, the embryologist injects the sperm into the eggs with a specialised micro-manipulator. ICSI is recommended when the sperm parameters are low. However fertilisation is achieved, the embryo(s) are allowed to develop in optimal conditions within the embryology laboratory before being transferred back into the uterus.

Our team provides specialised, compassionate fertility care.

What does an IVF/ICSI journey look like?

Your fertility treatment journey begins with a conversation with our counselling team. While it is mandatory under Victorian legislation, we see counselling as an important and helpful first step in your journey, as it ensures that couples understand their options, know what to expect from the treatment process, and have a realistic appreciation of their chances of conceiving with fertility treatment.

Your journey from that point onwards is tailored to you. We often recommend beginning with the least invasive treatment, before moving onto more advanced processes and technologies.

Ready to discuss what your fertility treatment journey might look like?

For women undergoing IVF/ICSI, the journey may look something like this:

Stimulation Phase

We use hormones to promote egg follicle development within your ovaries. There are numerous treatment protocols, individualised according to your particular circumstances. During stimulation you will have regular monitoring with ultrasound and blood tests. The Thrive Fertility nursing team will liaise with you during stimulation and provide regular updates, and you will be able to access your treatment plan through our patient portal.

Stimulation Phase

Egg Collection

Thrive Fertility is located in the Northern Private Hospital with modern operating theatres. We’ll perform a minimally invasive surgical procedure to collect your eggs under anaesthesia in the same building, providing a safe and quick transfer of your eggs to our embryology laboratory.

Egg Collection

Embyro development

Your embryos are kept in the optimal conditions within our laboratory to allow them to develop. The most favourable embryo is selected for embryo transfer, and surplus embryos can be stored (cryopreserved) for future use. Thrive Fertility uses time-lapse monitoring of embryos with Embryoscopes for all our embryos. Embryoscopes provide stable optimal conditions and detailed morpho-kinetic information that can be used to select the embryo with the best probability of achieving pregnancy.

Embyro development

Embryo transfer

We aim for elective day-5 blastocyst single embryo transfer under ultrasound guidance, to ensure optimal positioning of the transfer catheter. To enhance the embryo’s chance to implant, we use Embryoglue as standard of care for all embryo transfers.

Embryo transfer

Cryo-storage

At Thrive Fertility we can ‘freeze’ surplus embryos not used in a fresh stimulation cycle that have achieved the required development milestones. Embryos that are cryo-preserved can be stored for future utilization and transferred in a frozen embryo transfer cycle.