Treatments for infertility – medical treatment for infertility
Infertility in you and/or your partner can be caused by various reasons. If you want to get pregnant, then it’s important for both of you to undergo fertility evaluation and receive treatments for infertility as necessary.
There are various known and unknown causes of infertility in women. These include diseases like ovulation disorders, diminished ovarian reserve, and endometriosis. Main causes of male infertility include low sperm count and sperm motility, STD, injury or chronic diseases, and sperm blockage.
Medical treatments with drugs or surgeries can treat most of the above mentioned infertility problems.
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Medical treatments for infertility
Medical treatment of infertility usually involves using medication, medical device, surgery, or a combination of the methods. These treatments are quite expensive and may have side effects. Additional treatment may be required to counter the side effects.
For women, doctors usually prescribe fertility drugs to treat ovulation problems, provided that the woman’s reproductive structure is normal (e.g. no blocked tubes) and the man’s sperm count and quality is normal.
Fertility drugs for women are mainly to stimulate or regulate ovulation, and they include Clomid, human menopausal gonadotropin, follicle-stimulating hormone, and gonadotropin releasing hormone analog. These medications are associated with some side effects. So you may want your doctor to explain the pros and cons of these medicines before you start taking the treatment.
If infertility is due to structural problem in the ovaries, fallopian tubes or uterus, they can be corrected with surgery.
Treatments for infertility in men are given according to the causes of infertility. If the man is having a sexual function disorder, such as premature ejaculation or erectile dysfunction, there are medications and behavioral therapy to address these problems. If it’s related to sperm quantity, then depending on the exact cause, it can be remedied through either surgery (e.g. for varicocele) or taking medications (such as using antibiotics to clear up infections that are affecting sperm count).
Your doctor may also suggest using an at-home conception kit, which the key component is a cervical cap. You will first place your partner’s semen in the cap; the cap is then placed on your cervix. This method will aid conception in conditions such as low sperm count, poor sperm motility, or a tilted cervix. This device has to be prescribed by a doctor.
One of the treatments for infertility that is quite common is intrauterine insemination (IUI), or known by most as artificial insemination. It is mainly used to treat mild male factor infertility, women who have problems with cervical mucus, and couples with unexplained infertility, which accounts for about 15% of infertility cases. In this procedure, the woman is injected with specially prepared sperm. The woman may or may not be treated with fertility drugs prior to the procedure. In this method, fertilization takes place inside the body.
If all the above conservative medical treatments do not result in conception or a full term pregnancy, then your doctor is likely to propose you for in vitro fertilization (IVF), which is one of the assisted reproductive technology (ART) techniques.
Besides addressing infertility issues medically, alternative and holistic treatments for infertility are also fast becoming popular. The holistic techniques are more preferred as they have less or no side effects at all, and are relatively cheaper than high-tech infertility treatments.