Female Infertility Treatment

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Q. Glen, Are there any treatments for Infertility?

A. Treatment depends on the results of your infertility evaluation. Some causes of infertility have a specific treatment, such as surgery to remove a fibroid tumor or medicines to treat a thyroid problem.

Infertility associated with infrequent or absent ovulation often can be treated with hormone medications called fertility drugs. All fertility medications have potential side effects, and can cause twins or even more than two babies in one pregnancy. Most fertility treatments require the supervision of a fertility specialist. Examples of fertility medicines include:

• Clomiphene citrate (Clomid, Milophene, Serophene) is a medicine that stimulates the ovary to release one or more eggs. This medicine works indirectly by adjusting levels of your natural hormones.

• Injected forms of luteinizing hormone and follicle-stimulating hormone may be used when supervised by an infertility specialist. These medications encourage the ovaries to release more than one egg at a time. This is known as superovulation, or ovulation induction. These medicines are sometimes given after a course of treatment by another hormone medicine, known as a GnRH analogue, that quiets down all natural hormone stimulation to the ovary in preparation for a precisely timed cycle of ovulation.

After fertility drug treatment, the eggs that mature in your ovary can be allowed to travel naturally into the uterus if the fallopian tubes are healthy. Sometimes surgery is used to harvest the eggs that mature after fertility drug treatment, so they can be fertilized with greater certainty and placed into the uterus. Procedures that can help you to start a pregnancy include:

• Intrauterine insemination is a procedure in which sperm are inserted into the uterus directly. Semen is collected by the man, usually after he stimulates himself to ejaculate, and is inserted into the uterus using a special catheter or a syringe.

• In vitro fertilization (commonly called IVF, and known in the early days of the procedure as "test tube baby") combines egg and sperm in a laboratory dish. Surgery is required to collect the eggs that your ovary has been stimulated to release. The eggs and sperm are combined in the laboratory, and the embryos are inserted into your uterus. Multiple embryos may be placed inside the uterus, but IVF does not guarantee that a pregnancy will result. Sometimes, more than one embryo implants itself in the uterus, which can result in twins, triplets or higher-order multiple pregnancies. This procedure requires treatment with hormones beforehand.

• Zygote intrafallopian transfer (ZIFT) and gamete intrafallopian transfer (GIFT) are variations of the surgical IVF procedure and require the presence of at least one healthy fallopian tube. In ZIFT, eggs are removed from the ovary by surgery and are combined with sperm in a laboratory. The resulting embryos are placed in the fallopian tube. GIFT is when eggs and sperm are placed in the fallopian tube before the sperm and egg have fertilized together, allowing the eggs and sperm to fertilize inside the woman. As with IVF, these procedures require hormone pretreatment.

It is important for you to get counseling about all options for parenthood, including procedures for adoption. Some health insurance plans do not pay for infertility treatment.

Any personal health questions or problems mental or physical or before starting any diet or exercise program.Please consult your physician !

Wishing You Great Health!


Any questions? Ask Glen