IVF, ICSI and tandem cycles

The core of almost every treatment plan. Which variant you need depends on why fertilisation is not happening on its own — and that is a question the semen analysis and your history usually answer before you ever get on a plane.

Time in Cyprus: 7–10 days
Stimulation: 10–12 days, at home
Test day: ~12 days after transfer

IVF and ICSI — the difference in one paragraph

In conventional IVF, eggs and sperm are placed together and fertilisation is left to happen. In ICSI, an embryologist injects a single selected sperm directly into each mature egg. ICSI is the answer to a sperm problem — low count, poor motility, poor morphology, or a previous cycle where fertilisation failed. It does not improve egg quality and it does not raise success rates for couples whose sperm is normal, so it should not be applied by default.

Tandem cycles

A tandem cycle fertilises your own eggs and a set of donor eggs in the same cycle, then transfers whichever produces the better embryo. It suits patients in their early forties who are not ready to give up on their own eggs but do not want to spend another six months finding out. It costs more than a single-source cycle, and it is worth being honest with yourself in advance about which embryo you would transfer if both develop.

Frozen embryo transfer

If you have embryos already frozen — here or elsewhere — or if your cycle uses PGT-A and therefore a freeze-all protocol, the transfer happens in a separate, much shorter visit. Your lining is prepared with medication at home, you come for two or three days, and the transfer takes about ten minutes with no anaesthetic.

Worth knowing

IVF does not fix a hostile uterine cavity, an untreated hydrosalpinx or an active infection. If a scan or hysteroscopy shows one of these, that gets treated first — pushing ahead wastes a cycle.

Start with a question, not a commitment

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