Treatment options- ART

If you have been trying to get pregnant for over a year and have not been successful, don’t lose heart. There are many options available to treat infertility today. Depending on the cause and severity of your condition, your fertility specialist will provide the suitable service to overcome your infertility.

Assisted Reproductive Technology- ART
ART is the science of assisting the process of fertilisation when you cannot conceive naturally. Fertilisation occurs when the genetic material in the sperm fuses with the genetic material of the egg to form an embryo. During the natural course of events, fertilisation happens in a fallopian tube, one of the two tubes that carry eggs from the two ovaries to the uterus. The embryo thus formed, travels down the tube and enters the uterus where it implants in the endometrial tissue and grows into your baby. Any disruption in this exquisitely balanced process can lead to infertility. Many times, around 20-30 percent of the time, couples have no apparent physical issue and suffer from unexplained infertility. ART provides couples facing fertility issues a ray of hope.

Treatments offered in ART
ART is advised when medical and surgical interventions accompanied by lifestyle changes are not successful. The options include:

Ovulation induction
If ovulation is your problem, you will be given oral tablets and hormone injections to stimulate ovulation. Ultrasound scans will be done to assess your progress and when you are ready, you will be given an injection to trigger ovulation. This will increase your chances of natural conception with normal intercourse at this fertile period.

Intaruterine Insemination (IUI)
IUI is artificial insemination. If you have unexplained infertility or there is a minor sperm abnormality, IUI may help. Sperm from your partner is inserted into your uterus at the time of ovulation or just before it. It can be done during your natural menstrual cycle or after ovulation induction, if you have irregular menstrual cycles. Maximum 6  cycles of IUI can be performed and if they are not successful, then IVF is the next option.

Invitro fertilisation (IVF)
IVF has now become the most used procedure of ART. You will be given hormone injections to stimulate your ovaries to produce multiple eggs. When they are mature, they will be retrieved under anaesthesia. The retrieved eggs will be combined with your partner’s sperm in dish in a lab under controlled conditions. When sperm and eggs fuse to form embryos, they are maintained in the lab for about 3 to 5 days. The normal embryos are selected and a few are transferred into your uterus. If there is an excess number of embryos, they are frozen for later use, if necessary. After about two weeks a blood test will tell you if you are pregnant with your baby.
IVF has a success rate of around 60%. If you have not been successful in the first cycle, don’t worry. Subsequent cycles will yield results. If you have frozen embryos then you will skip the ovulation stimulation and egg retrieval stages.

Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI)
ICSI is similar to IVF but has an additional step of sperm injection. If you suffer from male factor infertility and have sperm abnormality, then ICSI will help you overcome this problem. A single sperm is directly injected into an egg to ensure fertilisation.

Intracytoplasmic morphologically selected sperm injection (IMSI)
IMSI technique is a variation of the ICSI. This further improves the chances of conception in couples with severe sperm problems. Sperm is viewed under powerful microscopes. Under extreme magnification abnormalities in the sperm can be viewed and the best sperm can be selected to improve success of the IVF procedure. The selected sperm is injected into the egg as in ICSI and the resulting embryo transferred into your uterus as in IVF.

Donor programmes
Donor eggs, sperm or embryos can be used for untreatable problems with the egg or sperm or both. The eggs and sperm are placed together in a dish, as in IVF, for fertilisation to take place. When fertilised the embryo is transferred to your uterus. If you are using a frozen embryo, then the embryo will be transferred to your uterus after hormone treatment to prepare the uterus for implantation.

Preimplantation Genetic Testing (PGT)
PGT allows testing the embryo’s genes for any abnormalities. This is done if you or your partner suffer from genetic abnormalities that could be passed on to your baby. Embryos that do not have the abnormality are selected and transferred into your uterus.

Rela Hospital is one of the foremost fertility and IVF centres in India with a remarkable success rate in live births. We provide the whole range of ART procedures. Andrology service offers men to overcome even severe sperm issues. If you have any fertility issue contact us for assistance.