Treatment Overview For Males and Females
Multiple pregnancy presents risks for both mother and fetuses. What infertility treatments are trying to achieve is successful pregnancy and birth of one healthy fetus.
There are many causes for infertility and for most of them, there are also treatments or alternatives, some of them better than the other, but none of them offering the guaranty for a healthy pregnancy. Usually female infertility is treated more easily than male infertility.
Female infertility treatment
- - Clomiphene, GnRH, gonadotropins, and bromocriptine are medications that stimulate the production and release of eggs used to treat ovulation problems. The first choice in medication is clomiphene (clomid, serophene) for stimulating ovulation. Yet, for every cause there is a different treatment.
- - Tubal surgery is used to correct fallopian tube damage and structural problems of the ovary and fallopian tubes.
- - IVF for fallopian tubes blockage
- - Laparoscopic surgery corrects endometriosis
- - IUI can overcome cervical problems
- - Any kind of ART in case initial treatment fails: sperm or eggs donors or even adoption in some cases.
ART procedures are controlled by the doctors closely, treating the ovaries with hormones before harvesting the eggs. First, the ovaries' activity is shut down by the pituitary down – regulation with a GnRH analogue. Then ovulation is triggered by a schedule using gonadotropins, which are ovulation stimulators.
Infertility problems may sometimes be treated along with the diagnosis, like flushing the fallopian tubes for a Hysterosalpingography can sometimes clear a blockage. Also during laparoscopy, when a problem is found it can sometimes be corrected at the same time.
Male infertility treatment
- - Washing and concentrating sperm can treat low sperm count. This procedure is used for insemination and ART.
- - Surgically removal of sperm directly from the testicles corrects semen without sperm. This procedure is used for IVF.
- - Retrograde ejaculation, sperm are ejaculated into the bladder instead of out through the penis. Insemination is done by collecting the sperm from the bladder and washing them.
- - Surgery can resolve structural problems and increase the chances for natural conceiving. It can also reverse vasectomy and repair varicocele or correcting blockages in the vas deferens.
- - Hormonal imbalances causing problems with sperm production can be fixed with medication for the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland to order correct sperm production. The treatments include hormones and medications like GnRH, gonadotropins, and bromocriptine.
- - Donor sperm is used for insemination or ART when none of the above treatments work. Some couples may take into consideration the adoption alternative.
The treatment success rates refer to the live births, not to the pregnancies or ovulations. Women with increased risk factors, like chronic health problems or of older age, are more likely to miscarry than the others.