In vitro fertilization (IVF) is now the most widely used infertility treatment in the world and has produced hundreds of thousands of new human beings, born to couples who would otherwise have been childless.
Standard in vitro fertilization involves stimulating the production of several eggs, collecting those eggs and mixing them with the partner’s sperm in the laboratory. A high proportion of the eggs are fertilized and embryos are then transferred back into the female partner’s uterus either after 2–3 days or after 5–6 days.
Different countries have different rules on the number of embryos that can be transferred; many are reducing this number to avoid the complication of multiple births.
Infertility treatment for known fertility issues
This first category of treatments is the only one that is not classified as assisted reproduction. These infertility treatments aim to treat an underlying problem so that pregnancy can occur naturally:
Surgery to clear a woman’s blocked fallopian tubes: this is done by laparoscopy, and involves only small incisions in the abdomen. Once the tubes are clear, the eggs produced by the ovaries can travel more easily towards the uterus, and a natural pregnancy may be possible.
Hormone treatment to redress an imbalance: this treatment can work well in either partner. Thyroid problems and an imbalance of hormones can be corrected by taking artificial hormones.
Correction of an anatomical abnormality: this can include treating a large varicose vein in the testicle that may be blocking sperm release, or correcting retrograde ejaculation (in which the semen goes into the bladder during an orgasm, instead of through the penis).
Surgical sperm retrieval: various surgical methods can be used to extract sperm directly from the testes in men who produce no sperm in their semen. This is generally regarded as being part of assisted reproduction, as the sperm is then used in a cycle of in vitro fertilization (IVF) with intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI).
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