Top 10 fertility treatments
The numbers of people within their reproductive age that are infertile are growing day by day. In the United States alone, the statistics is twelve percent of the entire population as revealed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The statistics is staggering but if you are infertile and love to have a child of your own, there are proven successful remedies.
More and more technological and scientific innovations are making it possible for better fertility treatments and more babies to be born which otherwise would not have been possible. As revealed by the National Institutes of Health, over 50 percent of couples treated for infertility issues have baby excluding those who conceive with IVF.
So if you are having any infertility issue, all hope is not lost! You have more than 50 percent chances of conceiving through any of these top 10 infertility treatment options:
1. Fertility Drugs
Fertility drugs can be given as injections or taken as pills. These medications are meant to release hormones that stimulate ovulation. They enhance a woman’s ability to produce eggs and make her womb more prepared to receive and implant embryo. This type of fertility treatment is best suited for women with infrequent ovulation or for men with poor sperm production. It is not good for women whose fallopian tubes are blocked and or who have scar caused by endometriosis. This is the most cost effective and convenient fertility treatment with 50 percent success rate.
You may experience side effects like headaches, multiple births, nausea, premature birth and so on.
2. Artificial Insemination or Intrauterine insemination (IUI)
This method of fertility treatment involves inserting a sperm that is particularly prepared into the uterus of a woman with the use of a thin and flexible catheter. If you prefer this method of fertility treatment, your doctor may recommend additional fertility medications to boost the possibility of the sperm meeting with the egg for fertilization. This form of treatment is best suited for treating issues of lower motile sperms or low sperm count and for women who produce antibodies against the sperm of their partners. It is also great for women with acidic, chunky or sparse cervical mucus. This is a simple procedure that can be carried out in a doctor’s office. It can result to multiple births.
3. Donor Sperm
In this type of treatment, sperm is collected from a man that is not the future father and used for IUI or IVF procedure. This treatment option is great for male factor infertility or for a man that has a genetic disorder that he doesn’t want to transfer to his children. This is also good for single women, or lesbian couples. It leads to 15 percent success rate in a cycle and about 80 percent success rate in roughly 6 cycles.
4. In Vitro Fertilization (IVF)
This involves multiple step procedures known as cycles in which the woman’s eggs are taken out and fertilized with sperm in a lab. As soon as the embryos develop, one or two are implanted into the woman’s womb and the remaining ones are stored. This method is great for older women or women with damaged or infertile fallopian tubes and for men with low sperm counts.
5. Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI)
With this infertility treatment, an embryologist chooses a very motile and healthy sperm from a man’s semen and injects it straight onto an egg with the use of a microscopic needle. As soon as the embryo grows, it is implanted into the woman’s womb through IVF. It is great for cases of poor sperm count or low quality of sperm.
6. Donor Eggs
Here, eggs are gotten from the ovaries of a younger woman and fertilized with a sperm from the partner of the recipient. Once developed, it is transferred into the uterus of the future mother. This is a good option for women with faulty ovaries or women who went through radiation or chemotherapy. It is also for women who have poor egg quality or genetic disorders they don’t want to be passed on to their kids.
7. Surrogacy
In this form of infertility treatment, the surrogate mother carries a baby for the future baby’s mother. The surrogate mother is either made pregnant through artificial insemination of the father's sperm or through IVF with the couple's embryo. Couples can also make use of donor eggs and sperm for surrogate parenthood. This is great for women who can’t carry baby as a result of medical conditions or infertility. This method is very costly.
8. Donor Embryos
With this fertility treatment, embryos are donated by couples who undergo IVF, got pregnant and have unused embryo they no longer need. The donated embryo is then transferred into the womb of the future recipient mother. This method is great for two couples who are both infertile but want to have the experience of pregnancy. The success rate depends on the number of embryos implanted and whether they are fresh or frozen.
9. Reproductive Surgery
Surgical operations are occasionally used to tackle structural abnormality in the reproductive system of a man and a woman. The patient may have to take bed in a hospital but sometimes it can be handled in the outpatient department. This can be a remedy for cases of endometriosis.
10. Gamete Intrafallopian Transfer (GIFT) and Zygote Intrafallopian Transfer (ZIFT)
During Gamete Intrafallopian Transfer (GIFT) procedure, the woman’s eggs are collected and mixed with sperm from the man in a petri dish, and transferred with laparoscope to the fallopian tubes of the woman for fertilization to occur. It is a great remedy for a woman who has one functional fallopian tube and a man with a low sperm count.
The Zygote Intrafallopian Transfer (ZIFT) procedure is similar to IVF but differs in the sense that the embryo is inserted into the fallopian tube, instead of the womb.