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Top : Reproductive Health : Infertility

Learn About Infertility:

Infertility is often defined as not being able to get pregnant after trying for one year. For millions of couples around the world, the inability to have children is a personal tragedy; this has increased the demand for assisted reproductive technologies (ART). Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) is used to manage infertility. Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) has been used in the United States since 1981 to help women become pregnant, most commonly through the transfer of fertilized human eggs into a woman’s uterus. However, deciding whether to undergo this expensive and time-consuming treatment can be difficult. Infertility affects more than 80 million people worldwide. In general, one in ten couples experiences primary or secondary infertility.

ART procedures involve surgically removing eggs from a woman’s ovaries, combining them with sperm in the laboratory, and returning them to the woman’s body or donating them to another woman. There are six main ART techniques listed below:

• In vitro fertilization (IVF): Your eggs are combined with your partner's sperm in a dish in a laboratory. Once fertilization occurs, the resulting embryos are placed in your uterus.
• Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI): Your eggs are combined with one of your partner's sperm — rather than with many, as in IVF — in a dish in a lab. Once fertilization occurs, the resulting embryo is placed in your uterus.
• Gamete intrafallopian transfer (GIFT): Your eggs are combined with your partner's sperm in a dish in a lab, then surgically injected into your fallopian tubes using a laparoscope (a fiber-thin tube). Fertilization happens inside your body and the embryo implants naturally.
• Zygote intrafallopian transfer (ZIFT): As with GIFT, your eggs are mixed with your partner's sperm in a dish in a lab, then surgically placed in your fallopian tubes. But, as with IVF, your doctor will wait until fertilization occurs to place your embryos inside you.
• Donor egg or embryo: If you're unable to conceive using your own eggs, an egg donated by another woman is mixed with your partner's sperm and the resulting embryo is implanted in your uterus. This procedure can also be done with a donated embryo.
• Surrogacy (or use of a gestational carrier): Another woman carries your embryo, or a donor embryo, to term and gives the baby to you after birth.