Basic Treatments
Some women have trouble ovulating, whether due to anovulation (when ovaries do not release an egg each cycle) or polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). In these cases, certain medications can help stimulate egg production. Clomiphene, letrozole and gonadotropin hormone therapy are various types of medication used for ovulation induction (OI). Your unique condition will determine which will offer the best treatment.
Ovulation induction is also used during in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycles to produce multiple eggs for retrieval.
Intrauterine Insemination (IUI)
Intrauterine Insemination (IUI) is a procedure where your partner’s sperm or sperm from a donor is placed into your uterus at the time of ovulation. This gives sperm the best shot at fertilizing an egg during your normal menstrual cycle by reducing the distance it must travel to reach the egg. Once placed into your uterus, the sperm have the opportunity to fertilize your egg naturally. If fertilization occurs and the resulting embryo implants correctly, you will go on to have a normal pregnancy.
Advanced Treatments
If basic fertility treatments haven’t worked, or if you have a condition that will not allow other treatments to be successful, advanced fertility treatments may be for you.
IVF is perhaps the most well-known fertility treatment. With IVF, your ovaries are stimulated with medicine (see OI above) to produce multiple eggs that are then retrieved for fertilization in the lab. Your partner’s sperm or sperm from a donor is then used to fertilize the eggs in laboratory dishes. The egg and sperm are placed together in a dish, and the sperm is allowed to naturally fertilize the egg. The resulting embryo matures for five days before being transferred to your uterus. Once inside your uterus, the embryo has a chance to implant on its own. If the implantation is successful you will be able to determine pregnancy 10 days to 2 weeks after the embryo transfer.
Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI)
ICSI is similar to IVF in that eggs and sperm are combined outside your body in a lab. However, instead of allowing the sperm to naturally fertilize eggs in a dish, the sperm is injected by an embryologist directly into each egg. This procedure is especially helpful when working with abnormally shaped sperm that may have trouble fertilizing eggs on their own.
Pre-implantation Genetic Testing
Pre-implantation genetic testing (PGT) is used to identify genetic defects in embryos prior to transfer through IVF. If you or your partner are carriers of a genetic disease, you may desire to pursue IVF due to the ability to test embryos before transferring them to your uterus.
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Future Fertility
You may know you want to have children “some day,” but you need to have a procedure now that would complicate fertility in the future. In that case, cryopreservation (or freezing) of your eggs, sperm or embryos may be a good option for you. Whether you have your eggs or sperm retrieved or simply save additional embryos from an IVF cycle, preserving your future fertility is wise when you know it may be difficult to get pregnant in the years to come.
Not everyone is able to produce eggs or sperm of high enough quality or quantity to allow for conception. If you are one of those people, a sperm or egg donor may give you the ability to have a child of your own. Similarly, if you had a hysterectomy or have other problems with your uterus that prevent you from carrying a pregnancy successfully then a gestational surrogacy may provide you the opportunity to have a child.
If you are in a same-sex relationship, or if you take hormones that affect fertility, we offer donor and surrogacy options that will help you grow your family.
Fertility Procedures
Hysteroscopy and laparoscopy are procedures that look inside and outside the uterus, respectively, in order to diagnose and treat problems such as ovarian cysts, endometriosis, uterine fibroids, adhesions, scarring, blocked tubes and polyps.
Myomectomy is a procedure used to remove fibroids from your uterus. Three types of myomectomy are available, depending on the extent of your fibroids: hysteroscopic myomectomy, laparoscopic myomectomy and abdominal myomectomy.
If you have previously had a sterilization or “tube tying” procedure, you will be unable to become pregnant without having the procedure reversed. However, a tubal reversal may not be successful in restoring your fertility. Your Inovi fertility specialist will advise you on the likelihood of success based on a variety of factors.
For additional treatments specifically for men, see Male Infertility Causes.
