Once you have discovered that you are suffering from infertility research on the internet can start to give you information overload. If you are one of the lucky ones then tests will have discovered exactly what is causing the problem, whether it be male factor problems with the sperm, PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome), endometriosis, blocked tubes or that the female partner is not ovulating. However, for 50% of couples a diagnosis of ‘unexplained infertility’ is all they have to work on. Though there are treatments that can be performed to help some of these issues, tablets taken and lifestyle changes made, often the recommended route is IVF.
If you have been told that you may need IVF then read a guide to assisted hatching, information on ICSI and details about blastocyst transfers.
IVF treatment involves the female partner taking drugs to stimulate her ovaries into producing a large number of eggs, which are then harvested and hopefully fertilised by the male partner’s sperm. There are several factors which affect IVF success rates:
The first is the clinic where you are having your fertility treatment. By law they should all publish their success rates and in the UK you can compare rates on the HFEA website. However, you should be wary of looking at statistics alone as while some clinics only treat women who are relatively young and have a good chance of success, others will take on difficult cases and couples who have had repeated failures at other clinics.
The second is the age of the female partner. There are several reasons why this affects success. One is that as women age their ovarian reserve diminishes, meaning that they have fewer eggs. This means that when the drugs are taken to stimulate over production of eggs, not as many will be produced as by a younger woman. The other reason that age affect success rates is that as eggs age the protective outer layer becomes thickened, making it more difficult for an embryo to break out once it has been fertilised. If you look at success rates then you will notice that for women under the age of 35 there is often a chance of 50%+ that the treatment will work. The likelihood of success diminishes every year after the age of 35 until it becomes quite unlikely to work after the age of 40. Higher doses of drugs can help to produce slightly more eggs and assisted hatching ivf can help the embryos break out of their protective layer but even so the success rates don’t go up considerably.
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