What is an Infertility?
Infertility is a broad term which is generally regarded as a disease of the reproductive system of either the male or female. Infertility can be a problematic situation for the couple who are facing continuous failure in achieving a clinical pregnancy even after having 12 months or more of a time period where they are having regular unprotected sexual intercourse which is known as infertility.
Man can suffer from infertility situation when the semen that the man ejaculates contains fewer amounts of sperms and when the sperm is of low quality. In such a situation, a man will not be able to reproduce and is known as infertile.
A woman can also suffers from the infertility if any organ of the woman like the ovaries, fallopian tubes or the uterus becomes damaged due to disease conditions or damage.
There are various different factors which can cause infertility in both men and women. A man can suffer from infertile situation if the individual is suffering from a condition known as varicoceles, or from various metabolic disorder conditions like diabetes, infectious diseases, testicular failure, uterine fibroids, non-cancerous lumps, Cystic fibrosis, trauma, polycystic ovary disease or infertility can also be a precursor of an individual undergoing chemotherapy or radiation therapy and sexually transmitted disease.
Some of the important factors that can pre-disposes to Infertility in female individual include lifestyle changes like stress, chronic alcohol consumption, obesity- due to sedentary life style, improper food habits, lower basal body temperature and exposure to environmental toxins etc. Infertility in men is quite difficult to diagnose when compared to women.
Treatment of infertility
A doctor or physician may advise a couple who suffer from infertility to have more unprotected sex per week so as to enhance the possibility or enable the woman to conceive and have more chances to become a mother.
Infertility treatment in India starts with various types of medication and the behavioral therapy can help a man to reduce the general sexual problems like premature ejaculation or erectile dysfunction related problems.
A varicose vein which is located in the scrotum, can also cause infertility in man, However, this can be either surgically removed or treated through medicines. In case of the blockage of the ejaculatory duct, sperm can be directly injected into an egg in the well equipped laboratory after it has been extracted out directly from the testicles of man. Retrograde ejaculation is a disease which is treated by taking sperm directly from the bladder of the individual and later it will get injected into the eggs. The epididymis which is a coil-like structure present in the testicles helps to store and transport the sperm. Surgery can be the option which can help the individual to remove the blockage if somehow it gets blocked.
A woman who is suffering from disorders related to ovulation can be prescribed various fertility induced medications like Metformin, Clomifene, bromocriptine, human menopausal gonadotrophin, human chorionic gonadotrophin and follicle stimulating hormone. In addition to these, there are various other surgical procedures available for the treatment of infertility in women. Fallopian tube surgery helps to repair the damaged or scar fallopian tubes and makes them easier for the eggs to pass through them. Laparoscopic surgery is also an option to combat the infertility issues and increase the fertility in women.
There are some more methods that are available which can help in assisting the conception like intra cytoplasmic sperm injection, intrauterine insemination, in vitro fertilization, assisted hatching, donating sperm or egg and surgical sperm aspiration.
In vitro fertilization (IVF)
In vitro fertilization (IVF) is a very complex procedure and is performed in the women who are trying to get pregnant for really long time. It involves a series of steps. IVF is a technique which is used to treat various fertility related or other genetic problems related issues and assist the patients by making them conceive a child.
During In vitro fertilization (IVF), the patient who is trying to conceive receives certain medications from the very first day of the period. The treatment with the medication is continued for 11 days. After completion of 11 days the mature eggs are being collected (retrieved) from the ovaries of a female individual and the sperm from male’s body is collected. Both of the egg and sperm are then fertilized by under laboratory conditions in a test tube. The whole procedure is kept under survelliance and is observed for 3-5 days. After 3-5 days, the fertilized egg is transplanted into the mother’s uterus.
The chances of having a healthy baby using the IVF technique depends upon many factors, like age and the main cause of infertility. In addition to this, IVF can be a very time-consuming procedure and a very costly, invasive process. If more than one embryo is got implanted in the uterus of a female, IVF can results in a pregnancy stage with more than one fetus (i.e., multiple pregnancies).
IVF cost in India
IVF cost is quite expensive and the average
IVF cost in India is around Rs. 2,50,000 for one cycle, which include the cost of medicines, doctor, injections and other. But, it can be done in the range of min. Rs. 1,50,000 to Rs. 4,50,000 to a maximum.
IVF doctors in India: Here is a mentioned list of some
best IVF specialist and
IVF clinics in India which are given below:
- Dr. Sonu Balhara Ahlawat : IVF Specialist, Gurgaon, India, MBBS,DNB, ARTEMIS HOSPITAL, GURGAON, Senior Consultant, have 17 years of experience, Currently associated as senior consultant at the reproductive unit of Infertility & IVF department at Artemis Hospital, Gurgaon
- Dr Sonia Malik: IVF Specialist, Gurgaon, India, She is the founder & director of the Southend Fertility & IVF Centre. She is associated with Obstetrics & Gynaecology in CK Birla Hospital.
- Dr. Geeta B Nath: IVF Specialist, New Delhi, India, Dr. Geeta B Nath is an eminent senior Obstetrician & Gynaecologist in Delh since 1992. She has also been a trainer for health workers with Voluntary Health Associates of India, New Delhi. She also has to her credit a book on Menopause published by VHAI, New Delhi. Dr. Nath also regularly writes for a website on parenting and maternal health and is on the editorial board of Obstetrician & Gynaecology quarterly magazine, Gurgaon.
Testicular / Epididymal Sperm Aspiration or Extraction (TESA – TESE ICSI):
It is the newest among the aspiration techniques which is known as testicular sperm retrieval (TESA – TESE). In this process, a small amount of tissue of testis is taken by the biopsy under the local anesthesia. It is a process in which demonstration was given that sperm do not have to “mature” and pass through the epididymis in case to fertilize an egg. Because of their immature condition, however, testicular sperm is needed in ICSI.
Testicular sperm extraction is basically indicated for the patients in whom there is a blockage in the epididymis area, which is located very near to the testis, or there is a blockage within the ducts of the testes (i.e., efferent ductules). This is also a recommended procedure for the men with extremely poor production of sperm, in which very few sperm are, produced which cannot even reach to ejaculate. Pregnancies are now routine work in cases of poor production of sperm, but there is some apprehension with the use of this sperm because in most of the cases the underlying condition is unknown which causes the poor production of sperm. So, in these kinds of cases, it must be realized what is the situation which is the prime cause of infertility, and whether it be can be transmitted to the progeny also. In recent searches, even the spermatids (i.e., the round cells that eventually become a sperm with a tail) have been used to attain pregnancies with ICSI.
ICSI (Intracytoplasmic sperm injection) has been revolutionized for the treatment of male infertility. The requirement of sperm for fertilization of egg has been dropped from hundreds of thousands for the in vitro fertilization (IVF) technique, to one workable sperm which is required for ICSI when compared to the IVF technique. This has been led to the recent development of aggressive new surgical techniques to provide workable sperm for the fertilization of egg from men with low or no sperm count. Spermatid injections are recently considered for various experimental procedures. One drawback of testis sperm is that is does not even freeze as rapidly as vasal or epididymis sperm and thus it is more possible that the male partner would need to go through the repeated procedures for each attempt of IVF .
Sperm aspiration techniques include the usage of minor surgical processes for the collection of sperm from the organs within the genital tract. These techniques are mainly useful for men in whom the sperm transport is not even possible because of the absence of ductal system that usually carries sperm to the ejaculated state or unable to be even reconstructed. It is necessary to realize, however, that in vitro fertilization (IVF) technique is necessary to attain a pregnancy with the vast majority of these kind of extraction procedures, and thus rates of success are thoroughly tied with a complex and complementary program of reproduction for both partners.
