Taking Warfarin. Am I Still A Candidate For In Vitro Fertilization?

Posted on Sun, 19 Aug 2012

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Sun, 19 Aug 2012 Answered on

Sat, 8 Sep 2012 Last reviewed on

Question : I am currently taking warfarin am I still a candidate for invitro fertilization

Answered by Dr. Mahesh Koregol (-3 hours later)

Hi,

Thanks for your query.

I have read your query & I understand your concerns. Following are my reply to your query:

1) Unfortunately warfarin cannot be continued if you are going for IVF treatment. This is because IVF involves retrieval of eggs from your body which leads to some amount of bleeding.

2) If you are on warfarin, the bleeding will be more and lead to life threatening blood loss as blood will not clot.

3) You can go ahead with IVF but you have to stop warfarin atleast about 15 days before going for IVF.

4) After stopping warfarin you have to check your blood coagulation parameters to see whether the efect of warfarin has gone off.

5) After doing IVF and Embryo transfer, you can again start on heparin and continue with it even dusring pregnancy.

6) you can switch over to warfarin from heparin from second trimester of pregnancy.

I hope I answered your query. I will be available for any followup queries you have.

Regards,

Dr.Mahesh Koregol
IVF & Infertility Specialist.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar