Infertility Management

Overview

Infertility is the inability to conceive a child after trying to achieve pregnancy for at least a year. Evaluation and regular check-ups is essential for female patients.
Causes of Infertility
Females:
1. Ovulatory Dysfunction
2. Uterine Abnormalities
3. Tubal Obstruction
4. Peritoneal Factors
5. Cervical Dysfunction
6. Problems with the Uterus
7. Problems with the Fallopian Tube
8. Problems with Ovulation
9. Problems with Egg Number and Quality
Males:
1. Unhealthy sperms
2. Absence of enough sperm in the semen
3. Hormonal Imbalance
4. Obstruction

How to Manage the situation

Evaluating both partners is important to manage infertility including medical as well as psychological support. Incorporating healthy lifestyle habits such as:

1. Maintaining a healthy body weight
2. Including healthy eating habits by including fruits, vegetables and whole-wheat foods
3. Reduce the consumption of alcohol
4. Limit the alcohol intake
5. Including Folic Acid Supplements
6. Limiting the consumption of processed foods

Treatments include

Treatment for males include:

1. Medications to improve hormone levels.
2. Surgery: Some couples do require surgery so the doctors can figure and fix the blockage in the tubes that carry sperms.

Some couples need more help conceiving to increase the chances of getting pregnant. To increase the chances, women might need to take medicines to stimulate ovulation before trying the following:

1. Intrauterine insemination (IUI): This involves inserting a tube inside the uterus to place the sperm.
2.In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF): This involves harvesting the eggs during the end of stimulation and finally placing sperms and eggs together in a lab dish. Once the sperm utilises the eggs, the doctor or nurse transfers the fertilised eggs into the uterus.
3. Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI): This one’s similar to IVF. The only difference is that the embryologist directly injects the sperm in the harvested egg and then the doctor transfers the embryos into the uterus.
4. A Third Party Involvement: The couple can use donor eggs and donor sperm or donor embryos, or some might need a surrogate as well, who will carry the baby till the end.