Fertility Treatment Options At A Glance For You

Making a family expansion plan and succeeding in it are two different things. Some of you succeed soon as you start working on a family expansion plan while some have to wait or struggle a lot. In your case, you decide to meet a respective doctor at a fertility clinic in Delhi or your locality when your effort for family expansion does not bear fruit. 

At the clinic/hospital, the doctor interacts with you and your spouse, knows your issues, conducts physical examinations, and recommends a few tests or screenings. After going through the results of the recommended tests, the doctor confirms your infertility is obstructing you from becoming parents. And after that, the doctor suggests some fertility treatment options to treat your issue/s. Here is the brief idea about the available fertility treatment options for you:

In vitro fertilisation (IVF)

Usually, IVF is a common fertility treatment option among people. The complete process of IVF treatment includes ovary stimulation with fertility drugs, egg retrieval, sperm extraction, egg fertilisation with sperm in the lab, embryo transfer, and pregnancy test. After the successful treatment, a couple can become parents of a cute and healthy child. 

The success of IVF treatment depends on several factors. And maternal age is crucial among them. It is around 40% for females under 35 and comes down to 5% for females above 40. If you are above 45, most doctors will never advise IVF to you. 

The IVF treatment carries some drawbacks or side effects. Some common side effects of the IVF treatment are as follows:

• Multiple pregnancies/births if the transfer of more than one embryo happens 
• Spotting or cramping after egg retrieval and embryo transfer  
• Swelling or rashes at the injection site 
• Sore or tender breasts 
• Headaches, bloating, or mood swings 

Fertility drugs

Doctors use gonadotropins or clomiphene as fertility drugs to regulate reproductive hormones in females. The administration of fertility drugs stimulates a female’s ovaries to make them produce more and healthier eggs in each ovulation cycle. As per the doctor’s advice, women take such drugs for 3-6 or more months. 

The success of fertility drugs is higher. Around 80% women ovulate in the first 3 months of the use of these medicines and rest in their 3rd treatment cycle. And the pregnancy rate through fertility drugs is 15%. Like other medicines, fertility drugs have some drawbacks that are as follows:

• Increased risk of having more than 1 baby 
• The use of clomiphene can cause you have hot flashes, breast tenderness, mood swings, ovarian cysts, pelvic pain, nausea, thick & dry cervical mucus, mild depression, and headaches
• Intake of gonadotropins can cause swelling or rashes at the injection site, breast tenderness, headaches, bloating, and mood swings. In some cases, females have ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS)

Surgery

Your doctor can recommend surgical options like Laparoscopy and Hysteroscopy to remove fibroids, open the blocked fallopian tubes, treat polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), fix genetic defects and remove endometriosis tissues. During or after the surgical procedures, you can experience discomfort in your shoulders or back, sore throat, nausea, and abdominal sore for a few days.  

Intrauterine insemination (IUI)

Through this, your doctor injects thoroughly washed and concentrated sperm directly into your (female) uterus at the time of ovulation. The sperm can be from your male partner’s semen or a donor. You can have your pregnancy chance through IUI between 7 and 19 per cent. 

Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI)

It helps you overcome your male factor infertility, especially in low sperm count. Through this process, the sperm of your male partner is directly injected into your egg in the laboratory and the fertilised egg is transferred into your uterus. It is usually a part of IVF treatment. 

Its success rate is similar to IVF and depends on maternal age. You have around 40% chance of getting pregnant if you are under 35. Your pregnancy chance comes down to 5% if you are above 40.

Gamete intrafallopian transfer (GIFT)

It is a rarely used fertility treatment. In this process, doctors mix egg and sperm in the lab and transfer that mix into a female’s uterus for natural fertilisation inside the body. 

Donor eggs and embryos

Doctors suggest Donor Program couples when the eggs or sperm of a couple is not healthy for fertilisation and conception. During the IVF treatment procedures, your doctor can advise you to opt for a donor egg or donor sperm. Through this, you won’t be the genetic mother or father of your child. And the process for choosing a donor can be lengthy. 

Gestational surrogacy 

Doctors usually advise surrogacy when females are unable to carry pregnancy due to poor health conditions or untreatable defects in their reproductive organs. A surrogate mother carries your embryo and enables you to be the genetic parents of the child after a certain period. 

Zygote intrafallopian transfer (ZIFT)

Like GIFT, ZIFT is a rarely used fertility treatment option. In this process, doctors mix sperm and egg in the lab. Before transfer, they ensure that the embryo is healthy or not and it is one-egg cell or multiple egg cells. 

Conclusion 

In today’s world, there are numerous fertility treatment options, Except GIFT and ZIFT, all the above-mentioned options are in use. And having an idea about fertility treatment options can help you decide what is better for you in what condition. You will quickly facilitate your doctor to go with the right treatment to become parents of a child.