Sometimes we recommend that patients use something called HCG. This stands for Human Chorionic Gonadotropin, in order to help mature their eggs. If a patient is undergoing a cycle with fertility medications where they really want to take time for intercourse, they may want to take the injection shot so they know when to have intercourse. If they are undergoing an insemination, we use it also for a timing measure because they will probably have that natural LH rise prior to ovulation anyway. We give the HCG so we can time the insemination and make sure we can get the sperm there, before the egg ovulates. When we use the HCG to mature eggs with in vitro fertilization, it's necessary to use. When we do in vitro fertilization in a patient, we actually shut down the body's own brain for making the hormones that allow the patient to ovulate. We did this because we don't want patient to ovulate before we get to the egg. So because we shut down their own system, they have to take that HCG injection in order to mature the eggs. When we harvest the eggs from their body, they are mature and ready to be fertilized with the sperm. The benefits of this are the ones I just described. The only risk is in giving this injection, the patient has an increased risk to have ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome. If we think a patient is high-risk for this, we use a different type of injection.