Fertility treatments: facts and figures

Infertility is a disease that results in the abnormal functioning of the male or female reproductive system according to World Health Organization (WHO), the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG).

Fertility treatment embraces all medical procedure which helps women to conceive. There are various types of fertility treatment including in vitro fertilization (IVF), intra–cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) and donor insemination (DI). In IVF, the eggs of a woman eggs are extracted from her ovaries by a doctor and are paired with sperm in a lab. If fertilization occurs, a few or all the embryos are injected into the womb of the woman.

Fertility treatment cycle like IVF usually occurs roughly within a fortnight. It is thus not a one–off treatment process but involves a cycle of treatments. A cycle starts when the woman starts to take a medication to stimulate egg production.

Below are some facts about fertility treatments:

Roughly 11.9 percent of women have gone through infertility treatment in their lifetime as revealed by the 2006–2010 National Survey of Family Growth, CDC.

The CDC also showed that about twelve percent of married women suffer from impaired fecundity.

ASRM revealed that male factors and female factors result to one–third of infertility cases each while the rest one–third is as a result of amalgamation of female and male factors or due to unknown causes.

National Women’s Health Resource Center states that a couple between the ages of twenty–nine and thirty–three with proper functioning reproductive system would conceive every month while 60 percent of them would conceive in 6 months time.

Just about forty–four percent of infertile women go for fertility treatment and among them only sixty–five percent succeed in giving birth as revealed by William M. Mercer, 1997.

According to ASRM, approximately eighty–five to ninety percent of infertility cases are treated with drug therapy or surgical procedures. Less than three percent needs advanced reproductive technologies like in vitro fertilization (IVF).

According to Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology, 2013, live birth rate for fresh non–donor embryo transfer is 47.7 percent if the woman is below thirty–five and 39.2 percent if the woman is between ages, thirty–five and thirty–seven.

A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine (August 2002), revealed that the percentage of multiple birth pregnancies was more in Counties that did not need insurance cover for IVF procedure.

Infertility is a sickness of the reproductive system which damages the individual’s ability to carry out naturally the basic function of reproduction.

According to the National Survey of Family Growth, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] 2006 to 2010, infertility affects 6.7 million women in the U.S. and roughly eleven percent of women in their reproductive age.

CDC also revealed though a research conducted on married women that six percent or 1.5 million women in the US are infertile

Infertility is not only a woman issue but also results from male factors.

Twenty–five percent of couples with impaired fecundity are affected by more than one factor.

In roughly forty percent of couples who are infertile couples, the factor is either the main cause or a causative factor of impaired fecundity.

Infrequent or atypical ovulation results to roughly twenty–five percent of entire female infertility issues.

The majority of infertility issues– about eighty to ninety percent of infertility issues are treated with standard medical therapies like medication and or surgical operation.

Although treatment by in vitro fertilization and related treatments are very significant to treat infertility in a few couples, it only results to three percent of infertility treatment, and roughly 0.07 percent of the total health care costs in the US.

12 percent of infertility issues are as a result of either overweight or underweight.

Women who are infertile as a result of their body weight can become fertile by attaining a healthy weight.

Smoking decreases fertility in both men and women.

Women who smoke are at greater risk of suffering from miscarriage than women who are non–smokers.

About thirteen percent of women who are infertile are cigarette smokers.

Chlamydia which results to roughly five million infections every year in the US can cause infertility if left untreated.

Facts about fertility treatment and multiple births

Most women think having two embryos transferred to the womb during fertility treatment enhances their likelihood of conceiving but that increases their chances of facing high risk pregnancy. Multiple births may sound great but in actual facts twins are six times more inclined to be premature than one baby. It can also result to lifelong health issues like breathing difficulty, cerebral palsy, physical and intellectual disabilities.

The chances of having multiple births are reduced by transferring just one embryo. This process is referred to as elective single embryo transfer or eSET. The remaining embryo can be stored for use in subsequent cycles. IVF transfer of one embryo is as much successful as two embryo transfer as shown in guide.hfea.gov.uk/guide below:

The risk of IVF treatment 

The greatest risk of IVF treatment is multiple births, and especially triplets. This has negative health implication for both the mother and the child. There is increased tendency of the multiple birth babies becoming premature and below normal birth weight. They are also at 4 times more at risk for still–birth or death within the first week of birth for twins and roughly seven times more for triplets than for one child. The occurrence of cerebral palsy is roughly five times more for twins and roughly eighteen times more for triplets than for a child.

triplets.

The scale of fertility problems in the UK

According to HFEA, UK, approximately one out of seven UK couples has infertility issues. This translates into roughly 3.5 million people. Although a good number of these couples would conceive naturally after some time, some of them will not.

Roughly 20 out of 100 couples will naturally conceive in a month while seventy will conceive in 6 months, eighty–five will conceive in a year. 90 percent will conceive in eighteen months and ninety–five within two years.

IVF Treatment and success in the UK 

The standard success rate for IVF treatment with fresh eggs in the UK is 28.2 percent for women less than 35 years; 23.6 percent for those between the ages of thirty–five and thirty–seven; 18.3 percent for women between thirty eight and thirty nine. 10.6 percent for women between the ages of forty and forty–two.

On the average, the success rate for Donor Insemination treatment in the UK is 14.1 percent for women below thirty–five; 8.3 percent for those between the ages of thirty–five and thirty–nine; 4.9 percent for women between forty and forty–two. Those who went for ICSI accounted for 44 percent of the entire IVF treatment in the UK.

The live birth that resulted from IVF rose from only fourteen percent in 1991, to a little above one–quarter in 2013. In 2013, only above two percent of the entire babies born in the UK were accounted for by IVF treatment.