Every couple’s journey through infertility and treatment is different. Depending on the cause, general health and history of the patients, personalized treatment plans are devised by the infertility specialists. However, there are some similar paths which every couple takes through this journey.

Once the couple has made this life-changing decision of seeking fertility treatment, the first step always is trying to identify the cause of infertility. History-taking sessions, physical examination, blood tests, sonographies may be done for this. If treatable via medicines, certain drugs are prescribed. Surgery to restore fertility may be recommended if necessary. All efforts are made to achieve pregnancy naturally – by increasing frequency of sexual intercourse and timing them using ovulation predictor kits, hormone testing; ii. ovulation induction, monitoring of egg release and timing sexual intercourse accordingly. This is done for 3-6 months.

If this does not work, assisted reproductive techniques might be tried, starting with intrauterine insemination – with or without medicines for ovulation induction. This involves washing and concentrating sperms and placing them into the uterus at the right time. This again is tried for 3-6 months.

Lastly if all fails, option of IVF is put forth wherein the embryo is formed outside the body and then transferred back into the mother’s womb. It involves stimulation of ovaries to produce more eggs 🡪 removal of eggs and sperm collection 🡪 getting both together in a petri-plate for fertilization in the lab 🡪 Fertilized embryos grown under special conditions 🡪 Embyro(s) put into the uterus for growth 🡪 Baby is born after 9 months.

If the sperm motility is low or sperms are unable to break into the egg, IVF with intrcytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) is done. A single sperm is directly placed into the egg instead of getting egg and sperms together for natural fertilization.

Blastocyst culture, assisted embryo hatching may also be tried in IVF cycles. Option of freezing extra embryos is given to the couple in case or a failed IVF cycle or if they want future pregnancies.

IVF is more invasive and costlier technique hence it is usually not the first option in cases of infertility, unless indicated.

If IVF is not successful with own gametes (eggs/ sperms) or if the female’s age is > 35 years, donor gametes may be tried to improve chances of pregnancy. If the female partner is unable to carry the pregnancy, surrogate pregnancy can be opted for.

Infertility treatment is always done in a step-wise manner. It is an emotional journey, one requiring tons of patience but your bundle of joy is worth the wait ! Femcare fertility becomes your partner in this journey and helps to make it easier for you.

The success rate of infertility treatment especially IVF depends on multiple factors including the woman’s age, the cause of infertility, number of cycles tried, previous history of pregnancies or children, etc.

A global average of successful outcome (live birth) is of about 40-50% in women under 35 years of age per transfer. Success rates are known to improve with multiple ART cycles, going even up to 60-63%. The success rate of ART reduces with increasing age of the women. In females > 40 years of age, chances of having a baby drop to < 15% using their own eggs.

However use of donor eggs can improve the success rates in elder women. CDC 2019 data shows that using donor eggs can have 53-65% success for fresh and 44-51% for frozen embryos depending on the cause.

India is not far behind in the global race with almost at-par success rates.

CDC has an IVF success estimator to check your chances of having a baby with IVF (This is just for reference, it neither provides exact nor personalized success estimate) https://www.cdc.gov/art/ivf-success-estimator/index.html

As technology in the ART space advances, success rates will also exponentially increase.

Femcare Fertility is most technologically advanced fertility centre in Pune to help couples dreaming of parenthood. Our qualified & experienced infertility specialist and dedicated team provide patient care with a human touch. We are a one stop solution for women’s reproductive health issues (PCOS, hormone imbalance) as well as couple’s fertility concerns.

Femcare Fertility offers high quality personalized treatment services at affordable pricing modules. For accessibility & customer experience, we also offer online video consultations and sample collection services at their doorstep too.