Female Infertility and IVF

What do you apprehend by the term “Female Infertility and IVF”? Female Infertility talks about issues that women face when they cannot get pregnant despite having unprotected sex with their partners. If the women are trying to get pregnant for the past one year or six months or having several miscarriages, then it is said that women are facing an issue of infertility. 

There are various types of infertility in females. Some of them are listed below, have a look at them:

• Primary Infertility: Primary Infertility in females exists before conceiving at once. It occurs due to genetic defects or reproductive disorders.
• Secondary Infertility: Secondary Infertility happens when women doesn’t get pregnant for the second time. This happens due to the uterine scars formed after surgery of the womb or in case blood group mismatch with your partner.
• Sterility: Sterility is due to damage done to a female’s reproductive organs. This happens because of an abnormal reproductive organ or an incapable reproductive organ.
• Asexuality in Females: Asexual females suffer several miscarriages as women are unable to accept psychologically that she can’t be a mother.
• Unexplained Infertility: Sometimes, the woman is healthy, but she is not able to conceive or get pregnant. However, the reason is unclear to them. This is known as unexplained infertility in females.

In this blog, I will tell how you about the Female infertility treatment to cure women’s infertility problems and the causes and symptoms faced due to infertility in females.

Causes of Female Infertility

Listed below are certain factors that cause infertility in females:

• Age: Young women between the ages of 24 and 34 have the best chances of conceiving since they are the most fertile, whereas older women have fewer eggs of lower quality. In the older age, the rate of follicle results in poorer quality of eggs, thereby increasing the risk of miscarriages.
• Smoking: The habit of smoking may damage your cervix and fallopian tubes and increases the risks of miscarriages.
• Weight: If you are overweight or underweight, it may affect your normal ovulation. If you think you are overweight, you need to reduce your weight, but if you feel that you are underweight, you should start taking a healthy body mass index to increase the frequency of your ovulation.
• Alcohol: Drinking Alcohol on a regular basis might affect the fertilization process and harm the reproductive organs of females.
• Sexual History: Sexually Transmitted infections like chlamydia and gonorrhoea provide harmful effects on the fallopian tubes of the females.

Symptoms of Female Infertility

Various factors contribute to infertility problems in males and females. However, the major symptom of infertility in females is that they are unable to conceive for an extended period of time. Besides this, various symptoms of infertility can be seen on female’s bodies, such as:

• Irregular Periods:  If the women consistently skip their mensuration cycle or have periods on inconsistent days, it is not considered normal. The female might be suffering from the polycystic ovarian syndrome or hormonal problems.
• Painful Periods: Women feeling cramps for two days is normal during the mensuration cycle, but it is not considered normal if women experience painful cramps or heavier blood flow. It may happen due to endometriosis, in which tissues lining the uterus began to grow outside the uterus.
• Imbalance of Hormones: The hormonal imbalance might impact the fertilization process and causes infertility problems in females. It creates several problems such as acne and skin problem, thinning hair on the scalp, weight loss, reduction of sex drive, etc.
• Excruciating Sexual Intercourse: If women feel pain during their sexual intercourse, it might be due to certain conditions such as endometriosis, sexually transmitted diseases, fibroids, cervix and uterus problems etc.

Treatment for Female Infertility

If the women cannot get pregnant or conceive, in that case, they should consult their doctor and treat their infertility problems. The doctor, after examining the underlying cause of infertility, will provide treatment appropriate to cure it. One such treatment to cure the infertility problems of females is IVF Treatment.

What does Ivf treatment means?

If you don’t know what is Ivf meaning, no worries!! In this section of my blog, I will tell you what IVF treatment is and how it can help to cure your infertility problems. The term IVF is known as In Vitro Fertilization which is the popular method of Assisted Reproductive Technology. 

It is a kind of fertility procedure that help couples to conceive artificially by removing the mature eggs from the uterus of the women and fertilizing sperms in the lab. After fertilizing sperms in the lab, the fertilized eggs are directly placed in the uterus of the females.

When surgery fails to clear a blockage in the fallopian tubes, In vitro fertilization is the most effective treatment option. The complete cycle takes only three weeks, making it easier for women to conceive again. The process can be done using their eggs or their partner’s sperm, or it can be done with an anonymous donor’s eggs, sperm, and embryos.

What is IVF Success rate for female infertility?

According to the researchers, the treatment of IVF is successful for the women whose age ranges in between 20-30s, whereas women who are above the age of ’30s might have fewer chances of becoming pregnant. 

The report of researchers that younger women are more likely to get pregnant and older women are less likely to get pregnant. Studies show that there is a 50.7% chance that a child will succeed from a donor egg. The body mass index of older women is 30% of that of younger women. If the endometrium is less than 7 mm thick, a woman is less likely to become a mother.

Laparoscopic surgery prior to in vitro fertilization has yielded positive results. Women need to apply stress reduction techniques such as listening to music. Mindbody programs help women to deal with the problems of infertility.

Vitamin D deficiency also causes exacerbations of infertility and in vitro fertilization. However, miscarriage and high blood pressure problems will reduce the chances of having a baby.

Women who smoke regularly reduce their chances of in vitro fertilization by 50% and their risk of miscarriage by 30% compared to non-smokers. Therefore, women should avoid smoking and drinking alcohol and eat a healthy diet before in vitro fertilization.

Women with certain ovarian genotypes are less likely to become pregnant due to IVF procedures. For example, progesterone levels are associated with a reduced pregnancy rate in the IVF cycle. Progesterone levels of 0.8 and 1.1 ng / ml result in pregnancy in proportions of 0.8, and levels of 1.2 and 3.0 ng / ml result in ratios of 0.6 and 0.7.

How is the process of In Vitro Fertilization conducted?

If you are wondering how the IVF process step by step is conducted to cure the infertility of females, no problem!! This part of my blog will provide you proper in-depth of how the doctors conduct the IVF process:

Step-1: The IVF Treatment begins on Day 1 of your mensuration cycle. The stimulation process of the Ovaries will begin on the very first day. The IVF treatment will help the follicles situated in your ovaries to give more eggs. 

The ovaries stimulation is done through medication, and IVF treatment will track the follicles’ progress through blood tests.

Step-2: Then comes the stage of egg retrieval. The IVF specialist will collect eggs from ovaries and insert eggs into your ovaries with the help of a needle. The eggs will not be seen from naked eyes, so doctors perform this step with extreme caution. 

The doctors collect 8-15 eggs during this process. Then, the doctor will ask the patient to remain in their position for more than 15-20 minutes, and after this step is completed, the patient can go back to their home.

Step-3: After the process of egg retrieval, the next step is to prepare the sperms. Couples can use a male partner’s sperm, but if the couple wants to use donor sperm or frozen sperm, the IVF team will prepare it in a lab. The doctor will select the best sperm which is healthy so that sperm can meet with eggs easily.

Step-4:  Once the sperm is prepared, the collected eggs and sperm will be placed and allowed to meet each other, which take place inside the human body when sperm meets eggs, but in IVF treatment, the team of doctors will use advanced technology perform this task.

Step-5: An egg fertilized with a sperm becomes an embryo. After collecting the embryo, the team will place it in an incubator where the growth will be monitored. After this, it will mix several elements and acids for the embryo’s growth, and it will grow slowly and slowly.

Step-6: To transfer the embryo, the doctor will ask the patient to lie down on the back and spread your legs. The doctor uses a tube to remove the embryo, open the cervix through a microscope, and insert the embryo through the cervix into the uterine cavity. This process takes 10-15 minutes and the patient is asked to remain still so that the embryo does not emerge. So, you can go home.

Step-7: After two weeks, the doctor will call the patient for an HCG test, and if your blood tests detect the presence of HCG, it means the pregnancy is successful.

What is ivf pregnancy?

IVF Pregnancy is the process in which the women’s mature eggs are combined with the man’s sperm in the laboratory setting to check the development of the embryo. The process is extremely useful for those women who are unable to get pregnant despite having unprotected sex with their male partners.

Conclusion

The blog mentioned above must have given you a clear understanding of female infertility problems and how women can cure their infertility issues through treatment and embrace their chances of parenthood.

FAQs

What are the symptoms of female infertility?

The major symptom of female infertility is the incapability to conceive or to get pregnant. Apart from this, other symptoms such as ovulation disorders, endometriosis, blockage in fallopian tubes, tubal blockage etc., impact the fertilization process of females.

What are the factors which contribute to a higher risk of infertility in females?

Several factors which contribute to a higher risk of infertility are age, smoking, consumption of alcohol, being overweight or underweight, sexually transmitted diseases, ovulation problems, endometriosis etc.

What are the treatments to cure female infertility?

One of the most effective and prominent treatments to cure infertility problems in females is In Vitro Fertilization, which allows women to embrace the chance of pregnancy and have higher chances of motherhood.

Can surgical treatments can cure the infertility treatment of females?

Various surgical procedures correct the infertility problems of females. Surgeries such as Laparoscopic or hysteroscopic and Tubal surgeries might correct an abnormal shape of the uterus or treat the uterus adhesions.

References

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1395760/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780323479127000226