The Incubator Inside You: IVC and the Baby Pod Explained

When you see a fertility doctor, you’re usually offered two paths: IUI or IVF. But what if there’s a middle ground?

In this episode of Taco Bout Fertility Tuesday, Dr. Mark Amols breaks down IntraVaginal Culture (IVC) — a treatment where your body becomes the incubator. At our clinic, we call the device the “Baby Pod,” and it offers a meaningful step up from IUI without the full cost and complexity of IVF.

Dr. Amols explains how IVC works, why it is not the same as IVF, and why marketing it as an IVF replacement is misleading. He walks through real-world success rates, who makes a good candidate, who should avoid it, the limitations of embryo monitoring, and why fewer embryos matter. He also clarifies how IVC differs from mini-IVF and where each fits in modern fertility care.

If you’ve failed IUIs, are concerned about IVF cost, or want a clear, honest breakdown of your options — this episode separates hype from hope and myth from medicine.

Thanks for tuning in to another episode of 'Taco Bout Fertility Tuesday' with Dr. Mark Amols. If you found this episode insightful, please share it with friends and family who might benefit from our discussion. Remember, your feedback is invaluable to us – leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred listening platform.

Stay connected with us for updates and fertility tips – follow us on Facebook. For more resources and information, visit our website at www.NewDirectionFertility.com.

Have a question or a topic you'd like us to cover? We'd love to hear from you! Reach out to us at TBFT@NewDirectionFertility.com.

Join us next Tuesday for more discussions on fertility, where we blend medical expertise with a touch of humor to make complex topics accessible and engaging. Until then, keep the conversation going and remember: understanding your fertility is a journey we're on together.

Transcript

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Today we talk about ivc intravaginal culture. I'm Dr. Mark amels and this is taco about fertility Tuesday. In last week's episode, I did discuss a little bit about ivc. And so today we're going, to talk about intravaginal culture and how your body becomes the incubator. As many of you know, when you go to see the fertility doctor, you're usually giving one of two choices. You can either do IUIs intrauterine insemination or you can do IVF. But what if there was an in between treatment, Something that maybe wasn't as aggressive of IVF but also had better chances than IUIs? What if you didn't have to use high tech equipment? Well, there is a middle ground between IUI and ivf, and it's called ivc, which stands for intravaginal, culture. And just like it sounds, a babypod, our term for the invocell device that goes in your vagina cultures there instead of in a high tech lab. So in today's episode, we're going to separate the hype from hope, the myth from medicine, and explain why this method might just be right for some people and a terrible choice for others. So what is ivc? Well, as I said earlier, it's intravaginal culture. It's a form of assisted reproduction where fertilization and embryo development happen inside your body. Specifically inside a small sealed capsule that we place in the vaginal canal at our clinic. We call this device the baby pod because, well, it literally becomes a little bod that holds your embryos as they develop in the vaginal environment. Now, don't get this confused with IUI intrauterine insemination, where sperm is placed directly into the uterus and the rest is left to nature. IVC is different. It's closer to ivf. In fact, it's IVF with a twist. Instead of your embryos growing in a lab incubator in a petri dish, they grow inside the baby pot using your body's natural warmth and CO2 levels, similar to an incubator. What allows this to be possible is that the temperature in the vaginal canal is going to be similar to the body's temperature, just like it would be in the uterus. And that's what we do in incubators. We keep the temperatures similar to what it would be in the uterus. Additionally, there's no oxygen in the vaginal canal. So the CO2 levels are going to be very similar to an incubator and there's going to Be very low oxygen levels. Now, similar to an IVF cycle, we do need to retrieve the eggs from your body. We prepare the sperm the same way. The only real difference is the location of where these embryos are going to grow. Instead of multiple lab visits and time lapse embryo monitoring, we seal up the baby pod and let nature do its thing for about a three to five day culture. And then we remove the embryos and we do a transfer. So yes, it does look like ivf, sounds like ivf, but it's not ivf. So the question is, why would anyone do this? Why let embryos develop inside your body instead of in a state of the art lab? Two reasons, cost and accessibility. IVF is expensive. Between medications, monitoring, lab fees, and the actual procedures, it adds, up fast. Some clinics it could be 15 to $25,000. And that's just not realistic for everyone. The baby pod allows us to cut out one of the most expensive parts of ivf, the lab. It's not about skimping on care, it's about being strategic. You still get an egg retrieval, sperm prep embryo transfer, but instead of growing your embryos in a $100,000 incubator, they're growing inside of you. It's a natural incubator powered by your own body. And if you listened to last episode's podcast, for some people, it may make them feel more secure because they know that embryo is always with them. They don't have to worry about that embryo mistakenly being given to someone else because it never leaves their body. And for some patients, they find it really meaningful to know that their embryos are with them from the start. So emotional connection is that's hard to replicate in a lab setting. But let me be clear. We don't market IVC as an alternative to ivf. It is not. That would be misleading. We market it as an alternative to iui, a step up in both science and success rate, but without the full cost or complexities of ivf. Now, years ago, there were a lot of clinics who would go and use, this as ivf, and people had lower success rates. And that's because they were wrong for doing that. It is not ivf. The baby pod using IVC does not work as well as ivf, but it can work surprisingly well for the right patient. In women under 38 with good ovarian reserve, live birth rates for IVC can range from 30 to 50% depending on how many embryos you put back. One or two. That's easily higher than IUI, which is around 10 to 15% using Clomid or Letrozole. But it is lower than traditional IVF, which ranges from 40 to 50% for the same age group. Now, as I mentioned, if you put two embryos back, you do get close to the same chances as regular ivf, but it is not the same. IVF will always be better than ibc, and that's because the temperature is controlled more, the ph is controlled more. And that's why the labs are very successful in complicated cases, because they can control everything. So although IVC can work, it does produce fewer embryos. And because we can't monitor the embryos while they're developing the pod, we lose some of the benefits of embryo grading, selection, and time lapse imaging that other IVF centers may use. Essentially, IVF is going to the grocery store and picking out the best apples, the ones you can see and touch, and the rest you put back. But in ivc, it's like getting a mystery bag of apples. You might get a good one, you might get a bruised one, but you only get to see them after you've paid. And this can be very disheartening because in ivf, you can see if the embryos aren't doing well, and you get to find out. Unfortunately, with ivc, the day of the transfer is the day you find out if any embryos made it to the blastocyst stage for a transfer. Now, some of you may be thinking, oh, this is mini ivf. Well, no, it's not. Mini IVF is still ivf. It's just IVF with less medication. Now, I'm not saying they're not Alabama cousins. Both are designed to reduce cost and intensity, but they serve different purposes. Mini IVF is usually used in women who don't respond well to stimulation or want to avoid high dose medications. IVC is more about simplifying the lab process. You may use a mini IVF protocol with ivc, but they are not the same thing. In ivc, we're minimizing both the medication and lab costs. But again, fewer eggs means fewer embryos, and fewer embryos mean fewer chances. So just like the studies show that many IVFs have lower pregnancy rates than IVF, IVC also has lower pregnancy rates than IVF. So IVC seems like the best thing ever. But that wouldn't be honest. IVC sounds amazing on paper, but there are clear limitations. First, we can't monitor embryos in real time. We don't know how many fertilized, how many divide correctly, or how many look good until we open the pod. Second, the environment inside your body, while warm and natural, is not perfectly controlled like a lab. Labs are designed to maintain specific oxygen levels, pH levels, CO2 levels and temperature. Within a very tight margin. Your body will fluctuate. It's not going to be as good. Third, you can't do genetic testing with ivc. If you want to test your embryos for chromosomal abnormalities, you need more embryos and better monitoring, which means ivf. And finally, IVC isn't great for patients with low ovarian reserve or severe male factor infertility, which we can still use ICSI to fertilize the eggs and put them in the pod. But when you're only getting a couple of eggs to start with, every embryo counts. The same thing with bad sperm. If you know you're going to have poor fertilization, you probably don't just want four eggs, you're going to want more. So although it's good, it's not good for everyone and not ideal for everyone. If you're someone who is failing regular IVF or have poor egg quality, although the body temperature is good, it's not good enough for some patients. Who it is good for is patients who maybe have very good ovarian reserve or maybe just have something like their tubes tied. That, takes me to the next part. Who is IVC for? I would say usually it's going to be someone with good AMH levels, someone who is under 38, someone with okay sperm levels. It doesn't have to be great, it can be low, it just shouldn't be severe. Where there's only less than a million sperm. It's great for people who have had unexplained infertility and maybe aren't ready to jump to ivf. It's also good for people who maybe failed a few IUIs. Now, if you've done many IUIs or had many years of trying, probably IVC isn't the right choice for you unless you find your tubes are blocked. I think it's great for people with same sex partners or using donor sperm. But again, the patient still needs to fit within that category. Now, if you're over 40 and have low egg numbers or you need PGTA or some other type of advanced lab support, IVC is not your best bet. That doesn't mean we don't let people go through IVC in those situations. We just make sure they know it's not the best for them. I've got people pregnant with IVC in those categories, even though we don't recommend it. We just want to make sure you know that it's not a one size fits all infertility. That although you can do it, it may not be your best option if you're not in that category. Now, let me share what the IVC experience is like for a patient. Basically, you start with a low dose stimulation. When I say low dose, we're talking like an aggressive IUI cycle. Not as much as ivf, but maybe more like a, mini IVF or a min stem IUI cycle. Eventually the follicles are big enough where you'll take a trigger shot and, and just like ivf, you undergo an egg retrieval. We take those eggs immediately, and then we inject the sperm into the eggs, and then we place the eggs that have been fertilized into the baby pot. It's sealed and then placed into the vaginal canal. Most patients say it feels similar to wearing a firm tampon. Now, because the baby pot is inside the vaginal canal, we recommend not doing heavy lifting, swimming, and definitely not intercourse. Basically, think of it like you're hosting VIP embryos because you actually are. After three to five days, we remove the pod, open it, and check for embryo development. If we have a good embryo, we transfer it just like we would in ivf. Now at our clinic, we do go the day five, not day three. Additionally, we do not freeze any extra embryos with IVC as a standard process, but we do allow it for an extra cost. But we do tell patients we don't really recommend freezing those embryos because they're just not as good as IVF embryos. Other clinics may do day three transfers. They also may freeze embryos as part of their standard package. But we also do it at such a fraction of the cost, there's a reason we don't freeze the embryos. The whole process is a low intensity, low cost, and for many patients, emotionally manageable experience. So why did we start doing ivc? Because we wanted to give patients more options. We, we felt it wasn't fair to jump all the way from IUI all the way to IVF and such a steep price difference. With IVC and the BabyPod, we're able to offer a different option, but we're not pretending it's ivf. It is not a replacement for ivf, and many patients should not do ivc. But if you are one of the patients who is a good cat for ivc, and although IVC is not perfect, it, it does empower patients, reduces the cost, and brings more people in the world of assisted reproduction who otherwise might never get a chance. And that is a win in our book. Not all clinics offer ivc, so you'll need to look around to see if your clinic offers it. We do offer it, but not even at AH all our clinics. If you're someone who has been thinking about doing IVC or maybe even mini ivf, hopefully this episode was helpful for you and helped explain things new. Maybe now you learned something that you can pass off to someone else and let them know this exists. As always, if you like this podcast, please tell your friends about it. Give us a five star review, but most of all, keep coming back. I look forward to talking again next week on Taco Belt Fertility Tuesday.