Fertility drugs
There are several types of drugs
available which work like your body's own hormones to stimulate
egg production (called “ovulation induction”):
- Brain stimulating drugs: a pill used to make the ovaries produce follicles.
- Pituitary
stimulating drugs: a small battery-operated pump that injects pulses of
the pituitary gland stimulating drug directly into the bloodstream.
- Ovary stimulating drugs: follicle stimulating drugs injected directly into the muscle or under the skin.
IVF Treatment (In vitro fertilisation)
Basically IVF involves the collection
of eggs from the ovary, putting them together with sperm in
a dish and, if those sperms fertilise an egg, putting the
embryo or embryos that result into the womb.
Every
month women prepare several eggs in their ovaries, but usually only one
is chosen by the body to be released into the fallopian tubes. With
IVF, the ovaries are stimulated to produce more than one egg to give a
better chance of collecting at least one which is healthy.
IUI Treatment (Intrauterine insemination)
In
this form of treatment healthy sperm is inserted into the uterus at the
prime time for fertilisation to occur. Before beginning the treatment
the health of the fallopian tubes is checked using a an laparoscopy
and/or an hysterosalpingogram (see below in “Fertility Checks”). Daily
injections (which can be self-administered) of recombinant FSH are
usually used to stimulate the ovaries to mature one to three follicles.
Blood tests are taken daily from about day 10 of the menstrual cycle to
help determine the best time for insemination. Prior to insemination an
ultrasound scan of the ovaries is carried out to check on the size and
number of the follicles. A semen sample is taken a couple of hours
before the treatment and healthy, active sperm are selected from the
sample and inserted into the uterus.
GIFT (Gamete intra-fallopian transfer)
Laboratory
selected strong unfertiltized eggs (following treatment) and sperm are
introduced into the fallopian tubes so that fertilisation occurs inside
the fallopian tubes. This technique is less uses due to the need for
more than one laparoscopy and the use of general anaesthetic so the
increased risk and inconvenience renders IVF treatment preferable.
ICSI (Intra-cycloplasmic sperm injection)
ICSI,
a treatment for male infertility, is similar to the IVF procedure. It
involves the extraction of a single functional sperm from the male
which is then injected directly into a egg which is incubated and then
examined the next day for fertilization. It is usual for two embryos to
be transferred into the uterus two to three days following
fertilization as is the case in a normal IVF cycle.
Sperm donation / Egg donation / Embryo donation
Sperm
donation is an option for single females and where the male partner’s
sperm is not suitable for fertilising an egg. Egg donation is a
possibility for females where the ovaries do not produce suitable eggs.
Embryos can be frozen and the frozen embroyos kept for a limited period
of time for introduction into the uterus during treatments in the
future. |
