Women’s Health: 5 Things to Know About In-Vitro
When a couple actively tries to start a family only to learn they have infertility challenges, it can be an unpleasant time in their relationship. Whether there are negative home pregnancy results or pregnancies that aren’t viable, infertility is a subject not discussed enough and yet highly prevalent. Continue reading to learn five things couples should know about in-vitro and infertility. Although complex, couples dealing with infertility should be optimistic because of the advanced treatments available.
In medical terms, in-vitro happens inside a glass dish, culture dish, or outside of a living organism. In creating a new life in-vitro, the egg and the sperm are put into a culture dish for fertilization. This method is used for women who have infertility or cannot carry a baby.
Infertility is the inability to get pregnant even when sex is unprotected and carefully timed for one year. According to the World Health Organization, infertility is “a disease of the reproductive system defined by the failure to achieve a clinical pregnancy….” Although there are unexplained causes of fertility, doctors have pinpointed several reasons a woman cannot get pregnant. Some of those include:
- Diabetes
- Age
- Excessive alcohol or drug use
- Excessive stress
- Radiation therapy or other treatments for cancer
- Exposure to environmental toxins
- Sexually transmitted diseases
- Weight issues (obesity)
1. One in Eight Couples Suffer Infertility
When you are in the thick of it and finally get an infertility diagnosis, it is natural to feel alone in your challenges. However, one in eight couples, roughly 7.4 million women, cannot conceive or carry a baby.
Other stats regarding infertility include:
- 35 is when females have a marked decline in infertility.
- 30/30/30/10 is the ratio of who is to blame for infertility. 30% solely the female, 30% exclusively the male, 30% combination, and 10% the cause of infertility is unknown
2. IVF Is Highly Effective
According to an extensive report from 2018, over 50% of IVF treatments result in a baby. That means that half the couples suffering from infertility have success with IVF.
The process is extensive and can include in-vitro diagnostic kits from Pro Labs which distributes high-quality laboratory essentials that hospitals, universities, and labs use.
The IVF process includes:
Phase 1: Ovarian stimulation
Phase 2: Oocyte retrieval
Phase 3: Embryo culture
Phase 4: Embryo transfer
Phase 5: Post-transfer and pregnancy
3. Infertility Has a Host of Causes
As described above, there are several factors for infertility. Some of the more complex causes include:
- Polycystic ovarian syndrome
- Endometriosis
- Hormonal imbalance
- Fallopian tube blockage
- Low egg reserve
4. Genetic Screenings Can Be Done
After going through everything above, most want a positive pregnancy test result. However, for others, there are concerns about diseases or other illnesses with their fetuses. In those instances, genetic testing is available.
Preimplantation genetic testing (PGT) is a method that examines embryos in vitro before they are transferred into a woman’s uterus.
This test checks for genetic problems that, in addition to causing implantation failure, can result in a miscarriage, congenital disabilities, missing or extra chromosomes, and single-gene disorders
5. Every Journey is Unique
Although you aren’t on the journey alone, it is essential to know that every case and the journey is different. Because there are two people involved in each case, issues that one couple experiences may not affect another couple. Fertility care encompasses the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of infertility.
It may be a problem with the ejection of semen for one couple and misshapen ovaries for another. For one couple, the difficulties may combine or be primary infertility in one of the individuals and secondary infertility problems in another. Therefore, while it is great to share your experiences and offer hope to a couple dealing with infertility, understand that no two cases are the same.
Conclusion
As you have read, a couple actively trying to start a family has infertility challenges; it can be an unpleasant time in their relationship. Although infertility is a subject not discussed enough and yet is more prevalent than once thought, there is much information to help couples. Five things couples should know about the complexities regarding in-vitro and infertility are listed above to offer hope to couples dealing with this issue.
