In today’s life, we have technology for almost everything. When everyone’s life revolves around work, health complications crop up. They have, in fact, now become common.
A problem, which is rising alarmingly, is of infertility. It has been found that the fertility rate is gradually going down and a large number of population isn’t able to conceive. This leads to huge emotional distress among the affected couples. In Vitro Fertilisation certainly offers a hope when nothing else works.
There are several reasons causing infertility which can either be related to male or female, or both. One factor is age. Today, due to various reasons, couples postpone having babies in their initial years of marriage but by the time they try to conceive, it just does not happen as with age, fertility of a person also decreases. Generally after the age of 35, risk of miscarriages and inability to conceive increase manifold.
Another major cause of rising rate of infertility is our sedentary lifestyle. Lack of sufficient physical exercises accompanied with poor eating habits results in obesity, which is also the leading cause of infertility. But, being too underweight can also make one vulnerable to developing infertility.
Another reason behind a large number of infertility cases is addiction to alcohol or drugs; or heavy smoking, which directly affects a person’s reproductive health.
Sometimes, sexually transmitted diseases, if left untreated, can also result in infertility. Other causes can be persistent exposure to harmful chemicals, lack of sufficient nutrition and mental stress. Also, there are certain genetic factors too that can affect a person’s ability to reproduce.
Unable to conceive naturally doesn’t mean that a couple cannot have children. By the intervention of medical science, many new options are now available. Among them, the most promising and popular one is IVF.
IVF is a process in which, sperms and eggs are fertilised outside the body, in a laboratory. Once the fertilisation is successful, embryos are kept in laboratory for a few initial days under supervision. Once they are fit to be transferred, the best one is implanted in the women’s uterus for further growth. This process of fertilisation is useful for people with unexplained causes of infertility, women having blocked fallopian tube or having ovulation problems, men having abnormal or low sperm production.
The probability of conceiving using IVF largely depends of the quality of eggs and sperms retrieved. Also, age plays a major role. Especially for women, using non-donor eggs, chances of conceiving decrease with age. Along with these, overall health of a person plays a major role in deciding the probability of conceiving.
So, in order to get it done successfully, maintain a healthy weight and Body Mass Index. Strictly refrain from alcohol consumption or smoking. Also, limit your caffeine intake to ensure desired results of IVF. There are many advantages of IVF. First and foremost it helps couples have babies. Apart from that, it is a great boon for people having genetic disorders. Through IVF, such couples can get embryos screened for diseases and save a healthy embryo. Not just that, if a person is about to start cancer treatment, which involves chemotherapy that can harm egg or sperm production, retrieving eggs or sperms is a good option.
Though, a very effective alternative, IVF too has certain drawbacks. One big downside is that is a very expensive procedure which many people are not able to afford. The cost of using this technology starts Rs.50,000 onwards. There are also chances of twin births, which increase the risk of premature baby.
Apart from that, certain fertility drugs and hormones are used which carry some mild side effects.Having a baby to complete the family is a blessing which every couple looks forward to.
Having it naturally is the best way, but when that’s not possible, IVF can help.
