Pregnancy after infertility treatment includes pregnancies after timed intercourse procedures, but mostly after assisted fertilization procedures (IVF, ICSI, TESE, insemination).
Given the known parameters of pregnancy, i.e. the date of aspiration and creation of the embryo, IVF pregnancy and pregnancy after insemination can be detected very early, certainly a positive beta HCG can be determined already fourteen days after aspiration.
This will also detect all biochemical pregnancies, which are pregnancies in which beta HCG is positive but the pregnancy is never proven by ultrasound, but the value of beta HCG either rises slowly and then stagnates, or starts to fall quickly.
Certainly, infertility treatment aims to result in first pregnancy and then birth, but sometimes a biochemical pregnancy shows that the couple and their doctor are heading in the right direction.
When beta HCG values that rise and approximately double once every two values are determined to be a normal early pregnancy, beta HCG can no longer give us useful information and it is better to avoid blood sampling, because it significantly contributes to stress. The next step should be an ultrasound examination. A healthy pregnancy with a positive heartbeat can be proven with a good ultrasound as early as 6 weeks of pregnancy. Earlier than that, it is only possible to prove whether the pregnancy is single multiple, or ectopic.
After examination at six and later at nine weeks of pregnancy, and termination of all therapy, the work of the reproductive endocrinologist is finished and the pregnancy should be taken over by a pregnancy specialist (subspecialist in fetal medicine) if the pregnancy is complicated, or a competent doctor if complications are not expected (for example, in inseminations ). The miscarriage rate in pregnancies after assisted reproduction procedures is the same as in spontaneous pregnancies, so there is no reason to fear miscarriage.
