What You Should Know About IVF

IVF in Australia in 2010 continues to be an area of interest for the community at large as well as the many couples who are struggling with their fertility and need help to achieve pregnancy and a baby of their own. Fortunately for Australians, IVF costs are subsidised by the Government, making IVF fees more affordable. IVF success rates in Australia continue to be amongst the highest in the world.

IVF has come a long way since the birth of the first IVF baby, British-born Louise Brown, 30 years ago. Nearly 10,000 IVF babies were born in Australia last year from IVF pregnancies and in excess of 80,000 since the birth of Australia’s first IVF baby, Candice Reed in 1980. It is unlikely that we will see a single breakthrough of IVF’s magnitude in reproductive science again in our lifetimes.

Assisted Reproductive Technologies, which includes ovulation induction, IUI and IVF, is in an area of growing demand, as Australians delay starting a family which impacts on fertility.

The decision to start a family later in life is more often than not a choice dictated by societal changes. Many women in their 30s do not have children because they do not have a partner, and a stable relationship and a good income are the most important prerequisites for starting a family, according to a study conducted by the Fertility Society of Australia.

So what is involved in IVF? Hundreds of women seek fertility treatment in IVF clinics and IVF Centres around Australia every day. There are two types of cycles involved in IVF treatment - known as agonist and antagonist. The difference between the cycles is time - the agonist cycle is shorter.

Treatment involves taking hormones to stimulate the ovaries to produce eggs. Eggs are collected from the ovaries using ultrasound-guided transvaginal needle aspiration. These eggs are placed in a dish with a large number of sperm allowing fertilisation to occur, and some of these eggs go on to form embryos. These embryos cam be transferred back into the uterus using a small plastic tube and some can be frozen and stored for future transfer. The embryo then implants itself in the uterus. Sometimes, intracytoplasmic sperm injection, or ICSI is used. This is a different, more sophisticated form of IVF where the scientist injects a single sperm into the egg. This technique is an excellent treatment if the sperm is of poor quality.

So what does the future hold for Assisted Reproductive Technologies?

The immediate future will involve refinement of the assisted conception technology to make IVF easier, including advanced techniques to fertilise eggs with one single sperm, developing molecular selection techniques to pick out the best embryos and sperm, for treatment. Research into fertility preservation, such as egg freezing, and ovary and testicular tissue preservation, is ongoing

Early in the 21st Century we are exploring the use of embryonic stem cells in the hope of enabling human beings to grow whole new organs. Looking further into the future we can foresee the use of stem cell technology to create artificial gametes (egg and sperm) and help men and women who have no eggs or sperm of their own have their own genetic children.

The possibilities for IVF and assisted conception into the future have yet to find a limit.

Ivf Australia is a fertility centre with excellence in fertility care. Visit www.ivf.com.au to learn about their superior specialist care, success rates, personalised treatment, in-house services, in-house departments, our network of fertility clinics, affordability and quality assurance.

IVF: Dealing With Your Concerns

A significant amount of couples who could benefit from IVF treatment fail to take advantage of it. Although roughly half of the three million infertile couples in the U.S. seek medical intervention to have a child, the overwhelming majority do not ultimately go through with IVF. This is the case even when they meet all of the criteria and their chances of successfully having a baby by under-going the treatment are relatively high.

So, what are the barriers that lead to so many people not going ahead with IVF? The answer is not entirely straightforward, because what is a stumbling block to one couple can prove to be irrelevant to another. It is fair to say, however, that there are some common issues that seem to be regularly brought up by the majority of would-be IVF candidates.

One is that it is risking the health of the mother or baby. Another is that it is expensive and unaffordable. A third is that it is inconsistent with religious or moral beliefs. A fourth is that the mother, or even the father, will be unable to fulfill their professional and personal obligations whilst the treatment is going on.

However, all of these issues can successfully be addressed, and none of them should be considered to be insurmountable. By spending some time learning about what exactly IVF involves - there are plenty of reliable online sources from which to gather this information - and having discussions with couples who have previously undergone the treatment and experienced IVF professionals, couples will find that their worries are unjustified.

That is not to say that IVF is the best option for every infertile couple, in some cases it is not, but it should at least be one of the options which is given serious consideration as part of the decision-making process. Simply dismissing it could well be one of the biggest mistakes that a couple ever makes.

Learn More : The IVF Procedure & The Cost Of IVF

Overcome Infertility With IVF Treatment

In vitro fertilization (commonly referred to as simply IVF) is a method of assisted reproduction that offers infertile couples a chance to have a baby that is biologically related to them. More than 200,000 babies have been born using IVF and it is now recognized worldwide as an established treatment for infertility.

With IVF, a man’s sperm and the woman’s egg are combined in a laboratory dish. The embryo which forms is then put into the woman’s uterus (womb) to develop naturally. Usually, 3 or 4 embryos are put in the uterus each time. Each attempt is referred to as a cycle, with the cost of each cycle being around $12,000.

So, what exactly is involved in each cycle? Here is a more detailed explanation…

The woman will be administered certain drugs (hormones) to induce her ovaries to create a number (5+) eggs. A surgeon then inserts a needle through the vagina into the woman’s ovary to remove the eggs. General anesthesia is not required when the surgeon does this, but the woman is sometimes administered some sedating medication. At the same time, a semen sample is taken from the man. He is asked not to have sex for half a week before the eggs are taken from his partner. The sperm are separated from the semen in a laboratory procedure.

Following this, the sperm will be mixed in a laboratory dish with the eggs taken from the woman. About 18 hours after this fertilization procedure, the laboratory dish is examined to determine if the egg or eggs have fertilized and if embryos have grown as a result. Should this have happened, they will be incubated over the next 2-7 days. The doctor then transfers the embryos into the woman’s uterus using a catheter (a long slender tube). She is then given a course of hormones to take for the following 10-14 days.

The success rate of this procedure is 36% among women younger than 35 years, 27% for those between 36-39 years, and 13% in those older than 40 years. Therefore, the total cost of IVF is normally more than $20,000, as the odds are against a couple suceeding first time around.

Find Out More : IVF Procedure

Tips On How To Get Pregnant Fast And Have A Healthy Baby

Getting pregnant can be very problematic. Statistics show that around eighty five percent of couples who have regular unprotected intercourse will become pregnant within a year. If you have been trying to conceive for over a year and still no luck then you may be within the twenty five percent of couples who have fertility problems.

Conventional studies put a womans fertility on the decline after about thirty, which means age is a factor in fertility, age is also a problem for men, however this comes into play far later than for women. It is estimated that it will take around three to four times longer for a woman over thirty five to conceive.

Finding out how to get pregnant fast and naturally is the key, especially if you are over thirty five and dont want to wait for three or four more years to get pregnant. Getting pregnant fast is possible with natural methods no matter if you are thirty five or forty five despite what the conventional wisdom tells us.

The first thing that is imperative to do is to learn your menstrual cycle inside out. Knowing when you ovulate means you can know when the right times are to try. I know it sounds obvious, but there is an astonishing amount of women who dont understand their cycles and so have been trying at the wrong times and thus taking longer to get pregnant.

Keeping a record of your basal body temperature is one way to know when ovulation occurs, as your temperature will rise at this time. You can also purchase a mini microscope which will show the cellular pattern of your saliva. When ovulation occurs hormones change the pattern of your saliva making it visibly different and easy for you to see when the right times are to try.

It is also important to take care of your health ” tilling the soil in a manner of speaking. Folic acid is very important in pregnancy so taking supplements and including folate rich foods like dark green leafy vegetables and legumes in your diet will help prepare your body. Ovarian problems like fibroids and cysts can inhibit pregnancy in a major way and lead to longer term fertility problems, so if you have them, then it is best to deal with them right away.

Rushing into surgery or drugs for fibroids and cysts is not a good idea, unless absolutely necessary because despite what you may have been told there are naturally ways to deal with fibroids and cysts. Understanding the damage that some fertility drugs and treatment can cause to your hormonal and reproductive system is important, especially given the fact that there are natural alternatives which can help you achieve pregnancy quickly and safely.

IVF and other treatments and medications are not without their complications and side effects, and sometimes this can lead to less fertility in the future. There is the common problem of multiple births for a start, and the emotional upheaval that hormonal treatments can cause, not the mention the side effects of playing around with your hormones on such a strong level.

Getting pregnant fast is easy if you do everything you can to help. Infertility is usually an indication of internal imbalances, and these are usually caused by multiple factors. That is why using a drug to treat one aspect of the problem so often yields no results. You can get pregnant quickly and easily without resorting to drugs by treating your body as a whole and tackling every aspect of the fertility puzzle, not just one side.

Your dream of a healthy happy baby and a natural pregnancy are within your grasp. Getting pregnant fast is a possibility when you tackle every piece of the fertility puzzle and understand the way your body works.