This is a safe option for achieving pregnancy through ART is some subgroups of women. These women could be older women with lowered ovarian reserve, healthy women who are fairly young and who have ovulatory cycles or in women who have had poor response to gonadotrophin stimulation in conventional IVF cycles.
In this type of IVF cycles, the woman is usually not offered any hormone injections and the follicles that are naturally grown in the ovaries are aspirated at an optimal time in her menstrual cycle. The egg/eggs so obtained are fertilized with her partner’s sperm using modern ART lab technology. The embryo that is generated is replaced in the womb 2-3 days later.
The advantages of this type of cycle are largely based on its simplicity, safety, inexpensiveness and the low risk of multiple pregnancies as compared to conventional IVF.