Touched by the Stork - Fertility Information
|
Thursday, March 29, 2012
|
|
Female Fertility: Finding the Right Treatment
|
|
Are you trying to get pregnant and worried you may be infertile? If you answered “yes,” you are among the hundreds of women in America who are concerned about infertility and conceiving a child. Women facing fertility problems today have many more options for treatment than in the past. From fertility drugs to acupuncture, there are many choices. It can be a challenge to make the choice that is right for you. To help you find the right approach for you, we offer a brief overview of some fertility treatments available.
Some Fertility Treatment Options:
Fertility medications
Fertility drugs are used to regulate your reproductive hormones over a period of three to six months. The success rate ranges from 20 to 60 percent, and the drugs can increase your likelihood of having twins or multiples. There are also some associated side effects (hot flashes, cramping, bloating, etc.)
Surgery
If you have any blockages in your fallopian tubes, scar tissue, ovarian cysts or other issues that may be preventing conception, surgery can help fix those problems. The success rate ranges from 40 to 60 percent for endometriosis or scar tissue treatments. The success rate for fallopian tube clearance treatments ranges from 10 to 90 percent.
In vitro fertilization (IVF)
IVF is generally used with fertility drugs that stimulate the ovaries to produce eggs. These eggs are retrieved from the ovaries and placed together with sperm in a specially-prepared test tube until fertilization takes place. One to three embryos will be placed in the uterus after fertilization. The success rate for IVF ranges widely, from six to roughly 30 percent, depending upon the age of the woman receiving treatment. Women under age 35 have the best chances of conceiving with IVF or another assisted reproduction technology (ART) such as gamete intrafallopian transfer (GIFT) or zygote intrafallopian transfer (ZIFT).
Artificial insemination
Also known as intrauterine insemination (IUI), this procedure involves placing sperm directly into the uterus. This treatment is often used where there is a problem with cervical mucus or male infertility. Though lower cost than some of the other options, the success rate for IUI ranges from four to roughly 17 percent – not very high.
Other fertility treatment options to consider include alternative medicine modalities such as acupuncture and herbs, egg freezing and egg or embryo donation, sperm injection (ICSI) and surrogacy or gestational carriers.
Click here to find a fertility specialist and explore your options for fertility treatments.
Sources:
http://www.hfea.gov.uk/fertility.html
http://infertility.about.com/od/infertilitytreatments/a/basictreatments.htm
|
|
|
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
|
|
Study Says Do It At Home!
|
There are few aspects of fertility diagnosis and treatment that strike more panic into the hearts of even the manliest men than the semen analysis or providing a sample for intrauterine insemination (IUI). Let's be frank -- specifically, guys get the willies about the collection of the semen to be analyzed.
Nothing like a closet-sized bathroom and a bunch of printed pornography in a public place to get your engines revved...
So, many people opt to "collect" the sample at home. But because of worries about the quality of the resulting sample -- think driving through morning rush hour traffic with a specially provided container tucked into your shirt for continuing warmth -- home collection isn't always allowed for patients who live too far from the lab.
Enter the thoughtful researchers from University of Rochester Medical Center in New York. They wanted to know just how much difference, if any, it makes to the final outcome of fertility treatment whether or not the guy, ahem, obtains his sample in the privacy of his own home or down the hall from the appropriately disinterested lab personnel. They thought there would be a difference in favor of clinic collection.
Lucky for lots of guys out there (and the women who often have to talk them into this task), they were wrong.
Following strict World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, they allowed patients to bring a sample from home if they expected their travel time to be less than 45 minutes. Controlling for variables like cause of infertility and treatment drugs used, the study compares pregnancy rates between home-collectors and lab-collectors. No significant difference was found.
Next time you and yours are asked to provide a semen sample, here's a link to the study that you want to print out and present to the fertility treatment team... Location of semen collection and time interval from collection to use for intrauterine insemination, published online in Fertility & Sterility, March 2007.
Gyun Jee Song, Ph.D., Rita Herko, B.S., Vivian Lewis, M.D
|
|
|
|
|
|
