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What is Assisted Hatching?
Assisted hatching is a fertility technique, used as part of IVF treatments, to facilitate the embryo hatching and implantation process. A fertilized embryo is covered by a shell, called the zona pellucida. To result in a successful pregnancy, the egg must hatch—and break out of the zona pellucida—and attach to the lining of the uterus. During assisted hatching, an embryologist thins or weakens the barrier around a fertilized embryo at a single point. A perforated zona pellucida increases the chances the embryo will hatch and successfully implant.
In a natural pregnancy, when the embryo reaches a stage of development known as the blastocyst stage, the zona begins to thin. The thinning process is spurred on by repeated contracting and expanding of the blastocyst, which alters the elasticity of the zona. Once the zona is sufficiently thinned, it tears allowing the embryo to hatch. Embryos that do not hatch will not be able to implant. Multiple studies have observed that natural hatchings in human blastocysts tend to occur close to the inner cell mass. In assisted hatching, embryologists apply the observed behavior of successful natural hatching to increase the likelihood of implantation for our IVF patients.
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What is Aspire’s Assisted Hatching Process?
There are frequently several steps along the journey from egg retrieval to embryo transfer. The majority of IVF our cases are frozen embryo transfers, and most of our patients elect to have PGS performed. All of this happens before assisted hatching.
Immediately prior to transfer, the embryo is moved to our micromanipulation station.
Aspire uses an automated witnessing tool, called RI Witness, to verify that all laboratory procedures are performed on your embryo, virtually eliminating the risk of mixing up your embryo with another patient. Learn more about RI Witness.
Your embryo is then placed on the inverted microscope of the micromanipulation station, where our experienced embryologists determine the best location to perform laser assisted hatching.
Using these measurements, the location, focus, and intensity of the laser to adjusted to ensure minimal heat exposure of nearby cells.
The laser creates perforations in the zona by vaporizing it. Typically, two or three laser pulses are delivered to create the gap.
Once laser assisted hatching is complete, the embryo is returned to culture medium and placed in the incubator to await transfer.