hCG Levels: What Do They Tell Us, and Why Should We Care

If you are doing infertility treatments, chances are your doctor will have you test your human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) hormone levels about 12 days after your procedure to determine if you are pregnant. hCG can be detected in one’s urine or blood, but a home pregnancy test will not show you the amount of this hormone, only whether you have enough of it to be considered pregnant. Knowing the actual level on a given date, however, is important if you want to be sure that the pregnancy is going well in its early stages.

My IVF Schedule

In vitro fertilization (IVF) schedules are highly personalized and often adjusted. The length of the ovarian stimulation phase can vary significantly from one patient to another (based on one’s response to medications). The type of medications will differ as well (based on physician’s preference and/or patient’s circumstances). The timing of the transfer too can vary (depending on the development of the embryos and whether genetic/chromosomal testing is performed). All IVF schedules, however, contain seven distinct stages: (1) preparation of the ovaries for stimulation, (2) ovarian stimulation, (3) ovulation trigger, (4) egg retrieval, (5) monitoring of the development of the embryos, (6) embryo transfer, and (7) pregnancy test.

My IVF Medications

In vitro fertilization (IVF) protocols in the United States typically utilize three main types of medication with the following distinct purposes: to suppress ovulation, to stimulate the growth of multiple eggs, and to trigger the final maturation of the eggs. In addition, IVF is often followed by medications that aid the thickening of the uterine lining to support implantation.