Understanding Fertility Treatment Process:
The path to parenthood can be filled with joy, anticipation, and sometimes, unexpected hurdles. If you’ve been advised to undergo fertility treatment, you’re not alone. This guide explores various aspects of fertility treatment, its effects on social, mental, and physical health, treatment procedures, success rates, and resources to help you navigate this journey.
Why have you been advised about Fertility Treatment?
The first question that comes in mind is why you have been advised Fertility Treatment and more importantly, how is it going to help you conceive. You see, fertility treatments or assisted reproduction techniques encompass different types of treatments, medications, protocols, and procedures that serve one common purpose – to assist you in your reproduction process. These Assisted reproductive techniques help address or overcome any problem that might be hindering the key functions needed for a natural conception. So lets understand that first.
For natural pregnancy to occur you need three factors:
Normal Womb function:
- a woman must be able to ovulate every month and release a healthy egg.
- The Tubes should be able to receive the eggs.
Coitus and Normal Sperm function
- The man should be able to deposit a good quantity of sperm into the vagina.
- Fertilization should occur .
Normal Embryo Function
- The embryo should be able to travel through the tubes and into the uterus for implantation while dividing actively to the blastocyst stage (day 5 embryo)
- The uterine environment and lining must be conducive to implantation.
If any of these functions are affected then it is not possible for the couple to conceive naturally. In such a case, you may have been advised to undergo IVF treatment.
Some of the probable reasons why you have been advised fertility treatment may be:
- Conventional methods of assisted natural conception like Timed intercourse has failed.
- You are not ovulating at all or having irregular ovulations.
- Your have PCOS .
- You have tubal blocks.
- You have problems in the uterus like fibroids, polyps, septums, infections, damaged lining, adhesions etc.
- Your uterine lining is two thin or too thick.
- Your partner has poor perm parameters or has azoospermia
- Your partner has erectile dysfunction.
- You may be having unexplained infertility.
What are the Fertility Treatment Options available?
Fertility treatment encompasses various medical interventions aimed at increasing the chances of conception. The specific treatment approach depends on the underlying cause of infertility . Some common options include:
- Ovulation induction: Medications are used to stimulate ovulation in women with irregular or absent ovulation. This helps in cases where women are not able to ovulate due to hormonal imbalances or may have poor ovarian reserve
- Intrauterine insemination (IUI): In IUI, washed sperm are directly placed into the uterus, bypassing the cervix, to increase the chances of fertilisation. This method is effective for couples where the male partner has poor sperm count or has erectile dysfunction. Click here to know more
- In vitro fertilization (IVF): Eggs are retrieved from the ovaries, fertilised with sperm in a laboratory dish, and the resulting embryos are transferred back to the uterus. In cases of Tubal block or severe male factor infertility, IVF can bypass the tubes and help improve the chances of implantation. Click here to know more
- Third-party reproduction: Here we use donor gametes (eggs and/or sperms) to create embryo which are then transferred back into the expecting woman’s uterus. At times, even this embryo transfer may be carried out into the womb of a surrogate as the intended mother’s womb may not be healthy enough to sustain a pregnancy. Click here to know more
