It is a stressful world where time is the most precious commodity. lifestyles have changed and the social fabric with it. There are more opportunities and a whole lot of challenges alongside for the modern woman as she rubs shoulders with the male counterpart.
This stress and the rampant hormonal disorders among women are causing a greater number of infertility cases especially in the urban setups. The medical advancements in the field of infertility are helping the cause in an effective manner giving women with fertility issues a fair chance at starting their own family. Two of the fertility treatment techniques that have produced best results are Intra Uterine Insemination (IUI) and In Vitro Fertilization (IVF).
What is IUIIJ
A fertility procedure where clinically cleaned sperm is placed in a woman’s uterus to facilitate fertilisation. This process is minimally invasive without any cuts or surgical procedure.
What is IVFIJ
A type of assisted reproductive technology used for infertility treatment that involves monitoring and stimulating a woman’s ovulatory process, removing eggs from her ovaries and then let the sperm fertilise them in a laboratory. The fertilized egg(s) then undergoes embryo culture before being transferred to the woman’s uterus for a successful pregnancy.
New interventions
Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) is a specialised IVF technique where a single sperm is injected directly into a mature egg. This process increases the chances of a successful conception, especially in male infertility cases. Most fertility centres or clinics are offering ICSI but attach a price tag of around 40-50k to it, however some of the more reputed names are offering this process as a part of the whole package foregoing the additional price tag.
Hysteroscopy and laparoscopy are both surgical procedures that are minimally invasive and are used in diagnosis and in treatment of certain infertility conditions in women. These procedures are employed for women who have a suspected diagnosis of endometriosis, fibroids, or polyps, or for those who have a history of pelvic infection, to ascertain the state of their uterine cavity. These procedures help the women conceive naturally. The combined cost for the two comes at an estimated cost of Rs 60k.
lymphocyte Immunization Therapy (lIT) is employed in cases where there have been multiple failures of IVF cycles at the implantation stage or there have been multiple miscarriages with the body rejecting the embryo. The embryo is a culmination of elements from both the mother and father. Sometimes the mother’s immune system rejects the embryo as a foreign body resulting in miscarriage. lIT is a procedure where lymphocytes or white blood cells (WBCs) are taken from the man and injected into the skin of the prospective mother. This process prepares the mother’s immune system by helping her develop an immunological tolerance to the embryo which consists of tissues from both the prospective parents. The charges for this process are 4k per cycle and may need 2 to 3 cycles for success.
The single most important thing that should be kept in mind is continuous monitoring of the patient at every level.
The writer is Dr Rita Bakshi, founder-chairperson of International Fertility Centre, talks about newage medical intervention in fertility treatments