Added: 10/07/2005 |
Female Infertility Is No More An AfflictionPast demographic studies indicate a directly proportional decline in female fertility with increasing age. The average 25-year-old woman who is trying to conceive may have 25% more chances for pregnancy, while a woman of 40 has only 5% per month chances. This factor in female infertility is mostly due to the aging of the egg itself. Infertility can result from abnormalities in men, women or both. Female infertility is a highly complex problem covering a multitude of factors.
Like all diseases, infertility too can be treated better if it is diagnosed early. Female infertility can be tackled with a wide variety of infertility treatments:
1. Assisted hatching - This infertility treatment involves treatment with steroids (to suppress the mother's immune system) and antibiotics (to remove any infectious agents in the uterus). On the third day after the egg retrieval, a microscopic glass pipette is used to place an extremely small amount of fluid on the outer coating of the embryo. This fluid dissolves part of the outer coating. The embryos are then transferred into the uterus as in a standard IVF cycle.
2. IVF with ICSI: After a semen analysis to determine if ICSI is the right infertility treatment the couple prepares for a standard IVF procedure. After the eggs are retrieved, they will be processed in the IVF laboratory. As per standard IVF procedure, the eggs are mixed with the male partner's sperm. In IVF with ICSI, a single sperm is injected into each mature egg. On average, about two thirds of the mature eggs that are injected with a sperm will fertilize. New micromanipulation techniques, especially intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) has changed the odds for the better.
3. Tubal Reversal Surgery: One of the easiest female infertility treatments, it is performed under general or regional anesthesia, and average operating time is two hours. Most women are able to return to normal activities within two to three weeks.
4. ICSI for women over 40: For this female infertility factor, prompt evaluation and aggressive treatment are critical. In ICSI, a single sperm is injected into an egg. In theory it takes just one sperm for each egg to be fertilized. The challenge is that this is one of the costly infertility treatments as it is highly technical; it requires sophisticated equipment and specially trained personnel. ICSI involves taking a microneedle, puncturing through the outer layers directly into the interior of the egg, and injecting a single sperm inside. The egg is held in a fixed position, and a single sperm is aspirated into the injection pipette, which is then placed through the zona pellucida (outer coating of the egg) and pushed into the ooplasm (interior of the egg) under magnification of 400 power. After the injection of the sperm, the eggs are incubated for 16-18 hours, and then examined for evidence that fertilization has occurred. The resulting embryos can then be transferred back to the woman's uterus, using standard IVF techniques.
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