Infertility treatments can either take place in your womb or in the laboratory. It all depends on how complex matters are. Thus, we have discussed three common treatments to get a good idea of how infertility treatments work and their effectiveness.
1. Intrauterine Insemination (IUI)
IUI is the most common, less invasive, and inexpensive infertility treatment, with a success rate of 10% to 15%.
It is the ideal choice for infertility treatment when the problem is low sperm motility or sperm count. Doctors place sperm inside the female partner's uterus in the IUI procedure to facilitate fertilization. The best time for doing IUI is when the woman ovulates or discharges mature eggs from their ovaries.
Sperm from their male partner is collected and then inserted into their uterus using a catheter. The IUI remedy leads to an increase in the total number of sperm cells in the uterus, which further helps improve the possibilities of conception.
Couples who get this done every month might achieve a success rate as high as 20% per cycle. However, the success of IUI is not dependent on one factor but multiple others. For instance, the age of the female, the reason behind infertility, and whether any fertility drug was used are a few to mention.
2. In-Vitro Fertilisation (IVF)
IVF is another common infertility treatment, which is quite expensive and guarantees a success rate of around 40%-50% per cycle. But how does IVF work?
Well, for starters, this treatment is an ideal remedy to deal with both male and female infertility problems. IVF is an ingenious process and is the Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) for infertility treatments. In its process, eggs are taken out from the female, and a sperm sample from the male is retrieved to make a combination of both in a laboratory dish.
After this, the embryo is passed on to the uterus. In general, test tube baby centres recommend this treatment to couples where the female has severely damaged fallopian tubes, or the male has poor sperm quality.
The success rate of IVF depends on factors like the mother's age, partners' reproductive history, lifestyle, and the cause of infertility. For instance, if the woman is under 35, the success rate of IVF is 41%, 32% for women aged between 35 to 37, and 23% for women between 38 and 40.
3. Intra-Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI)
The next step after the success of IVF is ICSI. It is quite expensive but also guarantees a good success rate.
It is done by holding the matured egg with a specialized pipette, then with a sharp yet delicate hollow needle, immobilization is done to pick out a single sperm. Finally, another needle is used to reach the egg's cytoplasm to insert the sperm into it.
The following day, doctors check the eggs to find evidence of fertilization. If properly fertilized, this embryo gets transferred to the female's uterus.
Most fertility specialists recommend the ICSI treatment to couples whose male partner experiences very poor sperm quality and low sperm count.
Moreover, understanding, 'how does infertility treatments work?' is not enough. You should also lead a healthy lifestyle and cut back on smoking and drinking habits to increase your treatment's effectiveness.