Since the first successful in vitro fertilization was performed in the 1970s, researchers have made extraordinary strides perfecting the process, which has come to be popularly known as IVF. Once considered controversial and impractical, IVF is now commonplace. Over five million children have been conceived through the process and there’s little reason to believe that it has any long-term effects on children’s health. That being said, it’s still a complicated procedure that costs time and money and requires tremendous emotional investment. It is a process defined by questions: How much does IVF cost? What’s the IVF success rate? How long does IVF actually take, start to finish?

There are concrete answers, sure, but also a lot of caveats. That’s why Fatherly built this guide to IVF. We talked to fertility doctors, medical researchers, and parents who have been through the process themselves to find out everything there is to know about IVF today so you can go into the process feeling confident and ready.