Honestly? Before I decided to do IVF in the USA, what scared me most wasn’t the money—it was not knowing how long the whole thing would take. My agency said “three months, done.” I finished the full cycle in 92 days, and that included losing nearly a whole month because my uterine lining wasn’t thick enough the first time. So I wrote down the actual number of days and what happens at every milestone, and threw in a comparison with IVF in Ukraine for anyone still debating which country to pick. If you’re trying to figure out the complete IVF process before committing to a destination, this is the honest version.
Six Documents I Prepared Before File Registration—and How It Saved Me Two Weeks
My first video consultation was January 8th. The clinic required everything uploaded in advance: both passports, a notarized marriage certificate, a semen analysis from the past six months, my AMH report, a uterine ultrasound, and infectious disease screening. I initially forgot the semen analysis—male test results are usually only valid for 3 to 6 months, so redoing it cost us another 12 days. My AMH came back at 1.9, and the doctor reviewed it and locked in an antagonist protocol on the spot. No extra trip needed.
What actually worked for me: scan every report into a PDF, name the files by date, and send them as one package. Include older reports too—doctors can read the trend, and that matters. A lot of people get stuck at this exact step, going back and forth submitting missing documents. Do it once, do it right, and you skip half a month of queueing.
11 Days From Stimulation to Egg Retrieval: How My Follicles Grew
I started injections on February 3rd—Gonal-F at 225 units daily. At my day-5 checkup I had 6 follicles on the right and 4 on the left; on day 8 they bumped the dose to 250 units. Retrieval day was February 13th: 11 eggs retrieved, 9 mature, 7 fertilized. Here’s something I only learned afterward—a 60% to 70% fertilization rate is the normal range, so my 7 embryos really weren’t a bad result.
During stimulation I injected every morning at a fixed time and logged bloating every evening. By day 7 the ovarian discomfort was obvious, and the doctor told me to stop high-intensity workouts. One practical tip: photograph the ultrasound data yourself on day 5 and day 8. Every dose adjustment is based on those two reports, and having your own copy means you can actually follow what the doctor is deciding and why.
Blastocyst Culture and PGT Screening: 7 Embryos Down to 3
Those 7 fertilized eggs became 4 blastocysts by day 5. After PGT testing, 3 were chromosomally normal, and one of those was a 4AA. The attrition during blastocyst culture is honestly the most demoralizing part of the entire IVF process—a 50% loss rate is completely standard in the industry. A friend of mine, 37 years old, had 9 fertilized eggs and ended up with just 2 blastocysts. She later found out that clinic’s blastocyst culture stability rate was only around 35%.
My cousin, who did her cycle in Ukraine, took a different route. In Ukraine’s legal surrogacy arrangements, embryo screening is equally mandatory, but the overall cost runs roughly 40% lower. Here’s my advice when vetting a clinic: ask directly—what was last year’s blastocyst formation rate, and what percentage of blastocysts passed screening? If they can’t answer with numbers, walk away.
The Two Weeks From Transfer to Pregnancy Test: What I Did and What I Didn’t
My transfer was March 18th via a medicated (artificial) cycle. I only started the cycle once my lining hit 8.6mm—the month before, at 6.2mm, they postponed everything. After the transfer I kept working as usual; I just avoided heavy lifting and hot baths. Day 9 blood draw: HCG at 186. Day 12: it jumped to 1,240.
My biggest lesson from those two weeks: do not take a home pregnancy test every single day. On day 7 I saw a faint line and nearly convinced myself it was a biochemical pregnancy—my nurse actually called and told me to stop. Preparing a week before transfer is worth more than bed rest ever was: hand off your work tasks, get the ice packs and a log sheet ready for your progesterone injections, and you’ll be far calmer.
Looking back at those 92 days, the only genuinely compressible stretch was the document-preparation phase before registration—getting both partners’ reports done in advance saves at least two weeks. And if you’re weighing IVF in the USA against IVF in Ukraine, sort out two things first: how big the budget gap actually is, and where you’ll handle the legal paperwork for parental rights afterward. Then map the days onto your calendar. That’s more useful than any guide you’ll read.