Couples that are infertile have the inability to have a child on their own for a period of a year or more of trying. There are about 6 million people affected with infertility each year. About 10% of these men and women are at their reproductive age. There are now more and more advanced medical procedures that allow couples to have a child and one method is in vitro fertilization or IVF. Another method is called intracytoplasmic sperm injection.
IVF was first used in the US in 1981. There have been around 250,000 babies that have been bon since then by this method. This method is looked down by many but for infertile couples, this allows them to have a child on their own by using their own eggs and sperm.
IVF is an assisted reproduction method, and the man's sperm is joined with the woman's eggs. Once the eggs are turned to embryos, they are then transferred back into the woman. On average, between 2 and 4 embryos are going to be transferred back into the woman's uterus as this helps keep the risk of multiple births down. Each time this is done, it is referred to as a cycle.
The Process
You will be meeting with a fertility specialist to determine the cause of you infertility. You and your specialist will determine the best method to use and if IVF is chosen, you, as the woman, will be taking infertility dugs for a few weeks. This can be in the form of pills or giving yourself shots. These drugs are going to help increase the amount of eggs you body makes and therefore producing more to retrieve.
Eggs are retrieved through a surgical procedure that is minimally invasive. Ultrasound is used to help guide the surgeon and the eggs are retrieved. The eggs are set in a petri-dish with your partner's sperm for 40 hours or so. After that, the eggs will be examined and placed in your uterus.
Success Rates
The success rates with IVF are about the same as with normal pregnancies. The older you are the harder it is to become pregnant. This is especially true in women over the age of 30. The success rate for women younger than 35 is 37% and women over 35 have a success rate of 28%. For women over the age of 40 the success rate is 13% and older than that, pregnancy is not common at all. In regards to miscarriages with IVF the rate is about as normal as a regular pregnancy. The older you are the higher the rate is and the less chances you have of getting pregnant.
This method has helped hundreds of thousands of couples have a child of their own and this method is also going to be a bit pricey. Before you decide you want to try this method, you should talk to your specialist abut cost and determine if this is still the right method for you.
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