Once you make the decision to undergo fertility treatment, knowing what options are available to you can be hugely beneficial when considering the best treatment for you.
Coming to terms with the fact that you may have to deal with a fertility problem can be a difficult truth to face. Discovering what fertility treatments are out there can help ease the tension. No matter the diagnosis, there are still options to help you to create a family of your own. There are numerous factors and medical problems which can lead to fertility problems. There is also a wide range of treatment options available. It is possible to fulfil the need of almost all patients.
What fertility treatments are available?
-Restoration of hormonal balance in women
You have been unable to fall pregnant naturally, it may be as simple as having a hormonal balance.
Our hormones play an important part in achieving pregnancy. It may be worth a hormonal level check before the consideration of fertility treatments. If You can check this via a simple saliva test (possible to do with a home-testing kit) or a blood serum test (with your doctor).
Depending on the results you may need to increase the levels of certain hormones with injections. These medications have the name of Fertility drugs.
The main hormones responsible for pregnancy are:
Anti-Mullerian Hormone (AMH) is a hormone that secretes from cells in the development of egg sacs (follicles). The level of AMH in a woman’s blood is generally a good indicator of her ovarian reserve.
Women are born with their lifetime supply of eggs. These gradually decrease in both quality and quantity with age. Because of this, an AMH test can give some insight on these issues. It tells you the remaining quantity of eggs and number of fertile years you may have. However, it cannot tell us much about the quality of those eggs.
Estradiol (E2 estrogen) is responsible for a healthy menstrual cycle. Amongst many other things in the body, such as healthy genes, maintaining healthy cholesterol levels and healthy bone formation.
Progesterone helps regulate the menstrual cycle and is also responsible for thickening the endometrial lining. Which makes it a habitable place for the embryo to implant and grow. During pregnancy, the placenta produces progesterone. This helps sustain the development of the baby. Additionally, it is vital for proper fallopian tube function.
Luteinizing Hormone (LH) triggers ovulation and works in combination with FSH, the follicle stimulating hormone.
Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH) regulates the body’s reproductive processes, giving signals to the ovary’s follicles to begin maturation ready for ovulation. It is also responsible for the body’s development, growth and maturation.
Prolactin is a hormone which plays a role in fertility. It inhibits the follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH). They are the hormones responsible for triggering ovulation and allowing eggs to develop and mature. High prolactin levels inhibit the secretion of FSH so if your prolactin levels are high, it may suppress ovulation. This is why women who are breastfeeding (and thus have high levels of prolactin) usually don’t become pregnant.
What fertility treatments are available?
-Intrauterine Insemination
If a couple has found themselves struggling with a low sperm count or poor sperm motility, intrauterine insemination (IUI) is an option. IUI consists of injecting a concentrated amount of sperm directly into the intending mother’s uterus. Physicians use a catheter to pass sperm, either from your partner or a donor, past the cervix and into the uterus. This is an excellent choice for couples who have been diagnosed with unexplained fertility.
-IVF
In Vitro Fertilization or IVF as it is more commonly known, is an excellent option for couples with ovulation of sperm motility issues. Ovulation, or the propensity of which a woman releases her eggs from her ovaries, can affect the likelihood of becoming pregnant in several ways. A common problem is not releasing eggs on time or not releasing enough of them, often attributed to hormone imbalances.
A common factor of male infertility is sperm motility, meaning that the sperm has difficulty reaching the egg. IVF is a good solution to both these issues as the ovarian stimulation process stimulates the growth of the antral follicles to produce mature oocytes. These oocytes are then collected via a minor surgical procedure and fertilized via an intracytoplasmic sperm injection (an incredibly precise technique which injects the sperm inside the egg) outside of the womb in a lab setting. Once fertilized, the gametes grow as cells divide, developing into blastocysts over the course of 120 hours. The transfer of the embryo is to the lining of the uterus of the woman via a small catheter.
What fertility treatments are available?
-Surgery
Surgery helps address genetic defects and some types of damage sustained to either the mother or fathers reproductive organs – such as blocked fallopian tubes/vas deferens, or fibroids and endometriosis. This procedure to the reproductive organs is usually laparoscopic in nature. Which means a set of several small incisions appear to the abdominal wall and the damaged organs receive treatment with the use of small cameras and other tiny surgical equipment.
What fertility treatments are available?
-Egg and Sperm donation and PGD testing
If a couple is a known carrier of a genetic disease, IPs may consider opting for a Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis test (PGD) or consider using a sperm or egg donor to help build their family.
Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) is a test which screens embryos for genetic abnormalities which may be passed to your child prior to conception. If parents know they are carriers of a specific disease, we recommend screening all 23 pairs of chromosomes. PGD gives, also, the possibility to determine the sex of the embryo.
IPs who are carriers of a genetic disease or who are unable to provide their own biomaterials also have the option of using donor material. When selecting an egg donor, intending parents typically choose from photographs and profiles from a database whereas, for sperm donors, less information is available.
Once a donor is chosen, the donor material (either sperm or egg) is then implanted in conjunction with genetic material from the other parent to create a gamete in a laboratory setting. The transfer of the embryo goes to the womb of the intended mother via an embryo transfer.
What fertility treatments are available?
-Surrogacy
Gestational Surrogacy is an option for couples who are unable to carry a pregnancy themselves. Many medical conditions can prevent a woman from being able to safely carry her own child and LGBT couples may also turn to surrogacy to realize their dream of becoming parents.
Medical issues may present certain challenges for couples that desire a child of their own. Although the challenge is there, it is by no means insurmountable. Gestational Surrogacy is a practice in which another woman offers to carry the baby for another but is in no way genetically linked to the baby.
Both parents can supply their own genetic material or in the instance that one intended parent is not medically able to supply their own material, donor material may be used. Via an IVF process, you can obtain embryos and implant them into the womb of the surrogate mother.
To learn more about our gestational surrogacy programs, please contact us: info@ilaya.es
For more information about what fertility treatments are there visit our blog. Our goal is to help couples realize their dreams of becoming parents. To find more out about Ilaya and any services we offer, please visit our home page.