Inability to have a biological child causes unimaginable stress in couples. There are several reasons for infertility, but as the saying goes, every problem has a solution. Becoming biological parents is not a distant dream if couples choose the right treatment at the right time. Dream Flower is here to help with the right assistance and technology for couples to be blessed with biological parenthood.
Here are the main steps suggested in infertility treatment:
1. Lifestyle changes: Men and women who are trying to have a baby through treatment should stop smoking, maintain healthy weight, reduce alcohol consumption, stop taking drugs, limit caffeine intake and practise safe sex.
2. Track ovulation: Keep track of the intervals between menstrual cycles. If it’s a regular 28-day cycle, the approximate day of ovulation is day 14. If your menstrual cycle is not a regular 28-day cycle, you may want to track ovulation in other ways such as taking your basal body temperature or through an ovulation predictor kit.
3. Fertility drugs and injectable hormones: Fertility drugs regulate or stimulate ovulation in women who are infertile due to ovulation disorders. Fertility drugs generally work like natural hormones follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) to trigger ovulation.
4. Surgery to correct infertility problem: Surgical procedures like laparoscopic or hysteroscopic surgery and tubal surgery correct problems or improve female fertility.
5. Intrauterine insemination: IUI is the process where millions of healthy sperms are placed inside the uterus close to the time of ovulation. The goal of IUI is to increase the number of sperm that reach the fallopian tubes and subsequently increase the chance of fertilization.
6. In vitro fertilization: IVF, the most effective assisted reproductive technology, involves retrieving mature eggs from a woman, fertilizing them with a man’s sperm in a dish in a lab, then transferring the embryos into the uterus after fertilization. One IVF cycle takes several weeks and requires frequent blood tests and daily hormone injections.
7. TESE, Micro TESE: Sperm extraction methods like testicular sperm extraction and microsurgical testicular sperm extraction detect sperm in the testicles of men who have poor sperm production.
8. Cryopreservation of eggs and embryos: In this technique, eggs and embryos are stored frozen for use in IVF cycles. With the availability of frozen embryos, a woman doesn’t need to undergo stimulation by fertility drugs in order to have an embryo transfer during treatment.
9. PRP treatment: Platelet rich plasma treatment improves thickness of endometrium in infertile women who have scarring from miscarriages or thin uterine linings.
10. IVF with donor eggs: Donor eggs are used to treat those who can’t use their own eggs and has a higher rate of success. Following retrieval from the donor, the eggs are fertilized in the IVF lab using sperm from the receiving couple’s partner, or in certain situations with donor sperm.
11. IVF with blastocyst transfer: A blastocyst transfer is a technique designed to increase pregnancy rates and decrease the risk of multiple pregnancy. Transfer of embryos is done at a very advanced stage of development called blastocyst, usually the fifth day after follicular aspiration.
12. Donor embryos: Donor embryos are used in women who has premature ovarian failure or has poor ovarian stimulation, and for couples who are carriers of a hereditary disease which could be fatal to the baby.
13. Surrogate pregnancy: A woman who gets artificially inseminated with the father’s sperm, gets pregnant and delivers the child for the father and his partner. Surrogate mothers choose to carry a pregnancy for those who cannot carry a pregnancy to term without help.
