Infertility Treatment, IVF Center In Vashi, Navi Mumbai

Female Infertility Factors

After a menstrual cycle, an egg starts growing in the ovary which will take about 14 days to reach a mature size and is then released- this is known as ovulation. This egg once released can potentially meet a sperm and get fertilized from an embryo – which then lodges on to the Endometrial lining of the uterus to grow into a pregnancy. Basically, ovulation occurs on the 14^th day before the periods – so in a normal 28 day cycle the fertile days are the middle

What we do to understand female infertility factors:

Follicular monitoring is serial sonography of the ovaries and uterus to see the egg growing and to see if the endometrial thickness also increases with it. Once the follicle is ready – 18- 22 mm in size we can time the ovulation by giving a trigger injection, which will facilitate the egg to rupture after 36 hours of this injection.  This is called timed ovulation. Doing this helps us in letting you know the best time to have intercourse – or we can also do an IUI ( Intrauterine Insemination)- that is processing the semen and separating only the good motile sperms and suspend this in a medium – which is then deposited in the uterus by a special catheter. This is not painful and just causes as much discomfort as a vaginal sonography. However, the success rate of follicular monitoring and IUI is around 15%.

Female Fertile Period?

Having sex during the fertile period of the cycle can lead to a pregnancy – but that should not curtail you from having sex whenever you want. Many couples assume that when on a follicular monitoring cycle – they have to abstain till the doctor orders. Ideally one should maintain a good sexual frequency of at least three times a week – even when on treatment. If an IUI is needed the doctor will advise you abstinence for 2 days, normally after the trigger injection is given.

If the egg is released every month and the semen is also good – suspicion is then raised if there is something wrong with the female anatomy. To have a natural pregnancy patent fallopian tubes are a must. So we test the female pelvic anatomy by either of the two methods-

• HSG – An Xray of the pelvis is done on the 10th day of the period a radio opaque dye is pushed into the uterus and we can see the inside cavity of the uterus and the tubes if patent.
  • Advantage – cheap; does not require admission
  • Disadvantage – Painful, if any abnormality is detected – there is a need for further testing like laparoscopy.

• Hystero – Laparoscopy – A minor operative procedure done under anesthesia to visualize the uterine cavity by hysteroscopy and to directly see the pelvis by laparoscopy – and to check if tubes are patent.
  • Advantage – Complete evaluation is done – if there is a problem like adhesions or any pathology like endometriosis it can be dealt with. If tubes are blocked an attempt can be made to open them also.
  • Disadvantage – expensive; needs admission to hospital

If the fallopian tubes are blocked on the above investigations then there is no way naturally for the egg to be transported into the uterus and a conception cannot happen. Blocked tubes are the main indication for In vitro Fertilization ( IVF, test tube baby )

IVF / ICSI:

This is a procedure by which the eggs are aspirated out from the body by a simple procedure called ovum pickup. In the laboratory then one sperm is injected into each egg to form an embryo. Embryos are then transferred back in the uterus – which hopefully will result in a pregnancy. The success rate of this procedure is higher than IUI – around 40%.