Together. All the way.

Controlling pH in embryo culture media is often perceived as difficult by embryologists. Still, to maintain the optimal physiological pH range of 7.20 – 7.40 is essential to maintain oocyte and embryo viability. Many functions in embryo cells such as glycolysis, protein metabolism, cytoskeletal dynamics​, cell transport and epigenetic functions are all dependent on pH.

This is an abbreviation of Jason Swain (2019) publication with emphasis on the oil used for medium overlay written by Ann-Helene Jakobsson, Vitrolife. 

In recent years blastocyst vitrification has become a very common embryo cryopreservation method. Our support embryologist Dr. Jakobsson is often asked about the necessity and importance of collapsing blastocysts before vitrification. In this blog post she will go through published studies on the topic and provide you with an answer.

In the IVF lab we basically do the same things every day. Often performed on a very tight schedule and not all that interesting but still must be done with care, as everything which concerns patients. Preparation of dishes is one of those very important things that at least I find time consuming and slightly boring. Dish preparation is commonly done several times a day: perhaps in the morning for ICSI, during mid-day for sperm insemination of oocytes and most common, in the late afternoon as part of the preparations for next day. How do we prepare dishes? And how should we do it?

Correct assessment of a semen sample is mandatory for diagnosis of infertility. During preliminary assessment as well as during potential later treatment, the appropriate selection procedure should result in a clean fraction of progressive motile functional sperm cells. This blog post will discuss different alternatives for sperm selection.

Vitrification and warming are operator dependent techniques. You need skilled embryologists with attention to detail to obtain high survival rates. Every IVF lab has its own ways of working to achieve optimal success. In this blog post we share tips and tricks we have learned from visiting labs around the world when providing support and troubleshooting on vitrification.

For decades we have employed slow freezing of gametes and embryos and performed the dehydration and rehydration steps at room temperature with results which until recently were considered satisfactory. Today, vitrification is the cryopreservation method of choice in many clinics and alternative protocols are available. Different manufacturers of vitrification products have different recommendations regarding procedure temperature, commonly either room temperature or 37⁰C, but which is the optimal temperature for vitrification and why? This blog post will give you insight.

The success of an IVF treatment depends on numerous factors. The patients and the causes of their infertility, the hormone stimulation regimen, culture media, quality and maintenance of equipment and skills of staff are all factors that will influence the outcome. One important factor that can have a detrimental impact on the IVF treatment outcome, but is sometimes overlooked, is the quality of the plastic equipment. 

A question we often get from clinics is for how long time an opened bottle can be used. And if it is possible to aliquot and use the medium until expiry date. In this blog post I make an attempt to answer these and other related questions on safe usage of media.