The essence of the method is simple: an egg and a sperm cell are combined in a laboratory, the resulting embryo is cultured for several days in an incubator, and then transferred into the uterus of whichever co-parent will carry the pregnancy, or into a surrogate's uterus. For co-parents, IVF is especially convenient for one specific reason: it fully separates conception from physical intimacy, which such partnerships typically neither involve nor require. The entire process — from the first consultation to the pregnancy confirmation — is supervised by doctors rather than left to chance.
IVF is not the only way for co-parents to conceive, but it's the one most often chosen in a handful of recurring situations.
Despite the variety of protocols and clinics, most co-parents go through the same sequence of steps — from the first clinic visit to the one blood test result that settles everything.
Step 1. Initial consultation (weeks 1–2)
Both co-parents attend the clinic together. At this stage, baseline fertility assessments are completed: for the partner providing the eggs, an AMH (anti-Müllerian hormone) blood test and an antral follicle count by ultrasound; for the partner providing the sperm, a semen analysis. The results determine the stimulation protocol and set realistic expectations for timing.
Step 2. Ovarian stimulation (weeks 3–5)
The partner providing the eggs self-administers daily hormone injections for 10–14 days. Follicle growth is tracked with regular ultrasounds and blood tests, with medication doses adjusted gradually based on the ovaries' response.
Step 3. Egg retrieval (week 5)
Mature eggs are retrieved through a brief surgical procedure under sedation, lasting around 15–20 minutes. Most women recover the same day and can go home within a few hours.
Step 4. Fertilisation and embryo culture
Eggs are fertilised in the lab — using conventional IVF or ICSI, depending on sperm quality. After five to six days, viable embryos are assessed by morphology and, if needed, biopsied for genetic testing — a small group of cells is removed for analysis without harming the embryo's further development.
Step 5. Embryo transfer (weeks 6–7)
One embryo is transferred into the prepared uterus — the procedure takes about 15 minutes and requires no anaesthesia. The transfer sometimes happens in a fresh cycle and sometimes in a later one, after cryopreservation, which allows more precise preparation of the endometrium.
Step 6. Pregnancy test (week 8)
10–14 days after transfer, a blood test for beta-hCG confirms whether implantation has occurred. If the result is positive, a follow-up ultrasound is usually scheduled two to three weeks later to confirm a foetal heartbeat.
The likelihood of IVF success is determined almost entirely by the age of the partner providing the eggs — not the age of the partner providing the sperm, and not the age of whoever will carry the pregnancy, if that's a different person.
These figures reflect the probability for a single embryo transfer, not for the protocol as a whole. After several cycles and several transfers, the cumulative probability of bringing home a child is noticeably higher — especially if the culture stage yields several viable embryos for cryopreservation.
The cost of a single IVF cycle without donor cells varies enormously by country — and doesn't always track the quality of care.
The Czech Republic and Greece have long specialised in medical tourism precisely because they combine affordable prices with modern protocols: many clinics in these countries work with patients in English and offer multi-cycle packages that lower the cost of each individual attempt.
Before starting the protocol, both co-parents sign medical informed-consent forms at the clinic — a standard procedure that has nothing to do with the nature of the relationship between the partners. But the legal protection of the co-parents themselves as the child's future parents is a separate and far more complicated question, one the clinic does not resolve.
In most countries, the person who legally counts as the automatic parent is whoever physically carries and gives birth to the child. The second co-parent has to establish parental rights separately — through adoption, an acknowledgment of paternity, a court-approved co-parenting agreement, or some other mechanism that varies sharply from country to country and sometimes from state to state. Consulting a family lawyer before the protocol begins, not after the child is born, is not a formality — it's a way to avoid a situation where one co-parent remains, legally, a stranger to their own child.
A written co-parenting agreement — a document describing financial obligations, a schedule for time with the child, how decisions about upbringing and education will be made, and what happens in case of conflict between the co-parents — does not, on its own, replace the legal establishment of parental rights. But it's exactly what helps partners agree in advance on things they would otherwise have to negotiate in the middle of a conflict.
From a verbal agreement between two people to raise a child together to a protocol that turns that agreement into biological reality, the path is shorter than it looks: the medical part fits into eight weeks. What's usually harder is everything before and after that window — finding the right partner, aligning expectations, and putting in legal terms a relationship that the law is still struggling to describe.