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Fertility treatments if you can't get pregnant
If you’ve been trying to get pregnant for less than a year, find out how to maximise your chances of getting pregnant. Eating a healthy diet, cutting down on alcohol, keeping to a healthy weight and getting exercise can all help.
If you’ve been trying to conceive for a year or more and you're not pregnant, it’s time to see your doctor. If you're a woman over 35, or if you think either of you may have a fertility problem, you might want to see your doctor after six months of trying to conceive. After some initial tests, your doctor may refer you to a fertility clinic.
The fertility treatment that's right for you depends on a range of factors. Staff at your fertility clinic can help you choose the treatment that will give you the best chance of conceiving.
Types of fertility treatment
No single fertility treatment is best for everyone. The right treatment for you will depend on your circumstances, including the cause of your fertility problems, the age of the female partner and your medical history. Broadly speaking, fertility treatments fall into three categories.
Fertility medicines
These are usually prescribed to women. Most of the common fertility medicines are intended to help with ovulation problems.
Surgical procedures
These include fallopian tube surgery, which can be helpful if the fallopian tubes, which lead from the ovaries to the uterus (womb), become blocked or scarred, preventing pregnancy.
Assisted conception
This can include intrauterine insemination (IUI), in which sperm is placed into the womb using a fine plastic tube. This can be helpful in cases of mild sperm problems. Assisted conception also includes IVF (in vitro fertilisation), in which sperm and eggs are mixed outside the body and put back into the womb. This can be helpful for a range of fertility problems, including more severe sperm problems and cases of unexplained infertility.
Access to fertility treatment
If you think you may be experiencing fertility problems, see your doctor first. Your doctor may do a range of tests to help identify any fertility problems.
Treatments Explained
Intrauterine insemination (IUI)
In vitro fertilisation (IVF)
Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI)
Gamete intrafallopian transfer (GIFT)
Sperm extraction
Embryo freezing
Other options
Clinics are increasingly using two newer techniques that may enhance the chances of pregnancy in some patients.
Blastocyst transfer
If during previous IVF attempts, the embryos fail to implant in the womb, the doctor may suggest a blastocyst transfer. The embryo is allowed to develop for five or six days before being transferred to the womb. Because the embryo is more developed and transfer occurs closer to the time that implantation would occur naturally, the pregnancy rate is usually higher. However, some embryos will die in the laboratory, so the number of embryos available for transfer and freezing will be fewer. For this reason, it's generally only offered to women who produce a large number of good quality embryos.
Assisted hatching
Before attaching itself to the wall of the womb, an embryo has to break out (hatch) from a gel-like membrane known as the zona pellucida. This membrane can be tough or thickened and some fertility experts think it may impede implantation of the embryo in the womb. To help the embryo break through, the embryologist may make a tiny hole in the membrane before it's transferred to help the hatching process.
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