Treating Infertility

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Infertility is the inability to naturally concieve a child, or to carry a pregnancy full term. This could be down to the male in the partnership, the female, or in some cases, both. Infertility affects approximately 10% of people of reproductive age. Roughly 40% of cases involve a male contribution or factor, 40% involve a female factor, and the remainder involve both sexes. There are several different reasons why a couple may be unable to concieve naturally, if a woman is unable to concieve it may be down to general factors - for example, significant liver disease, Ovarian Factors such as Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, Cervical factors such as Insufficient cervical mucus, Vaginal factors such as Vaginal Obstruction or Genetic factors. If the male is however, unable to concieve it may be down to Testicular factors such as an abnormal set of chromosomes, Posttesticular causes such as an infection or even Smoking in some cases. In the cases where both the man and woman are infertile, the couple's infertility is usually because of a combination of these conditions. However, occasionally one partner may be independantly fertile but the couple are unable to concieve together naturally.

There are many different ways in which to treat Infertility. One of the most popular is In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) in which egg cells are removed from the womans body, and are then fertilized outside of the womans womb using either the womans partner or a donors sperm. The fertilised egg (zygote) is then transfered back inside the woman's uterus, bypassing the fallopian tubes. This is used if the male has a low sperm count or low sperm mobility. Children that are a result of IVF treatment are commonly refered to as, 'test tube baies,' - a reference ...

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...s typically recruited by egg donor agencies. Once the egg donor is recruited, she undergoes the IVF stimulation therapy, followed by the egg retrieval procedure. After retrieval, the ova are handed over to the recipient couple, fertilized by the sperm of the male partner in the laboratory, and after several days, the resulting embryo(s) is placed in the uterus of the recipient.

Embryo donation is another form of fertility treatment. This is where both the egg and the sperm come from donors. The egg and sperm are fertilised outside of the body using IVF and are then inserted into the womans womb mechanically. This method may be chosen if both partners are infertile, but the womans womb is capable of carrying a child full-term. The donation process of sperm is much the same as the donation of eggs. It is usually anonymous unless the couple chooses people personally.

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