Tips to Prepare for Fertility Treatment

Most Important Tips to Prepare for Fertility Treatment

Over 80% of the time, fertility drugs can stimulate ovulation—fertility treatments are being done now more than ever. Current technology offers fertility treatments to make pregnancy a reality for many couples who would otherwise struggle. Fertility treatments are a highly involved process and can be both emotionally and physically taxing. However, certain things can help you prepare for fertility treatments to alleviate stress and increase the likelihood of a healthy pregnancy.

7 Tips to prepare for fertility treatments

• Quit unhealthy habits - When starting fertility treatments, quit smoking, drinking, and staying up late to help prepare your body for a pregnancy while increasing the chances of getting pregnant.
• Maintain a healthy weight - Being overweight can affect pregnancy. Excess weight increases the risk of a miscarriage and can affect outcome with in vitro fertilization procedure (IVF). A high BMI also affects the safety of undergoing anesthesia or sedation, which is necessary with IVF.
• Eat a balanced diet - Eating a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, and healthy fats can help you maintain a good weight while building up nutrition for better overall health.
• Get quality sleep - Sleep is crucial for cellular repair, maintaining stress levels, and essential for fertility. Set a goal of getting between 7/ 9 hours of quality sleep each night.
• Maintain stress levels- Stress can hurt the chances of successful fertility. Seek ways to maintain stress during this process. Try things like acupuncture, walking, journaling, and meditating to decrease anxiety.
• Change workout routines - Exercise is great for increasing fertility. Replacing running and extreme exercising like bodybuilding to a gentler routine. Yoga, walking, swimming, hiking, and biking are wonderful ways to get gentle exercise during fertility treatments and pregnancy.
• Begin taking a prenatal vitamin - It is recommended to increase nutrients during fertility treatments. Prenatal vitamins are an excellent choice to ensure the body has enough folic acid, which aids in developing the brain and spinal cord during pregnancy. Please discuss with your doctor what prenatal vitamins they recommend.

Prepare for Fertility Treatment

How prepare for IVF?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology provide information online about U.S. clinics' individual pregnancy and live birth rates.

When choosing an in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinic, keep in mind that a clinic's success rate depends on many factors, such as patients' ages and medical issues, as well as the clinic's treatment population and treatment approaches. Ask for detailed information about the costs associated with each step of the procedure.

 

Before beginning a cycle of IVF using your own eggs and sperm, you and your partner will likely need various screenings, including:

• Ovarian reserve testing. To determine the quantity and quality of your eggs, your doctor might test the concentration of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), estradiol (estrogen), and anti-mullerian hormone in your blood during the first few days of your menstrual cycle. Test results often used together with an ultrasound of your ovaries, can help predict how your ovaries will respond to fertility medication.
• Semen analysis. If not done as part of your initial fertility evaluation, your doctor will conduct a semen analysis shortly before the start of an IVF treatment cycle.
• Infectious disease screening. You and your partner will both be screened for infectious diseases, including HIV.
• Practice (mock) embryo transfer. Your doctor might conduct a mock embryo transfer to determine the depth of your uterine cavity and the technique most likely to successfully place the embryos into your uterus.
• Uterine exam. Your doctor will examine the inside lining of the uterus before you start IVF. This might involve a sono hysterography — in which fluid is injected through the cervix into your uterus — and an ultrasound to create images of your uterine cavity. Or it might include a hysteroscopy — in which a thin, flexible, lighted telescope (hysteroscope) is inserted through your vagina and cervix into your uterus.

Before beginning a cycle of IVF, consider important questions, including:

• How many embryos will be transferred? The number of embryos transferred is typically based on age and the number of eggs retrieved. Since the rate of implantation is lower for older women, more embryos are usually transferred — except for women using donor eggs or genetically tested embryos. Most doctors follow specific guidelines to prevent higher-order multiple pregnancies — triplets or more — and in some countries, legislation limits the number of embryos that can be transferred. Make sure you and your doctor agree on the number of embryos that will be transferred before the transfer procedure.
• What will you do with any extra embryos? Extra embryos can be frozen and stored for future use for several years. Not all embryos will survive the freezing and thawing process, although most will. Cryopreservation can make future cycles of IVF less expensive and less invasive. Or, you might be able to donate unused frozen embryos to another couple or a research facility. You might also choose to discard unused embryos.
• How will you handle a multiple pregnancies? If more than one embryo is transferred to your uterus, IVF can result in multiple pregnancy — which poses health risks for you and your babies. In some cases, the fetal reduction can be used to help a woman deliver fewer babies with lower health risks. Pursuing fetal reduction, however, is a major decision with ethical, emotional, and psychological consequences.
• Have you considered the potential complications associated with using donor eggs, sperm or embryos, or a gestational carrier? A trained counselor with expertise in donor issues can help you understand the concerns, such as the legal rights of the donor. You may also need an attorney to file court papers to help you become legal parents of an implanted embryo.

 How prepare for IVF?

IVF for male infertility

Sometimes, IVF for male infertility is the best treatment option. When the semen analysis is abnormal and identifies a male factor, it’s important to look for the cause. If the low sperm count appears to hormone-related, caused by an infection or related to a male anatomic abnormality, basic treatments may be used. If these do not work, or if it is a more severe case of male infertility, IVF is usually the treatment of choice.

Options other than IVF for male infertility

For hormonal imbalances like a low testosterone level, Doctor may choose medications like Clomid or fertility shots. The partners of men with decreased sperm counts and normal hormone levels will often undergo IUI. This is a simple and relatively inexpensive treatment for mild cases of male infertility.

Anatomical abnormalities that contribute to male infertility often require further evaluation by a urologist. Urologists are specialists regarding the male reproductive system. They will work with Doctor to determine what treatment is necessary.

If the sperm count is too low for IUI, IVF for male infertility may be the best treatment option. This treatment is a very successful option for couples with male factor infertility.

When do we recommend IVF for male infertility?

If a semen analysis reveals a very low concentration of normal sperm, Doctor often will recommend IVF for male infertility. This is because the chances of success are much better than with timed intercourse or IUI.

IVF is also a good option when there are multiple fertility factors, such as a low sperm count in combination with a blocked tube, difficulty in ovulation or advanced age of the woman. IVF can be the most effective treatment for couples in these situations by increasing the chance for fertilization of the egg.

The reason why is as follows:

Success Rates for IVF

Success rates for IVF depend on a number of factors, including the reason for infertility, where you're having the procedure done, and your age.

 

 

The CDC compiles national statistics for all assisted reproductive technology (ART) procedures performed in the U.S., including IVF, GIFT, and ZIFT, although IVF is by far the most common; it accounts for 99% of the procedures. The most recent report from 2016 found:

• Pregnancy was achieved in an average of 27.3% of all cycles (higher or lower depending on the age of the woman).
• The percentage of cycles that resulted in live births was 22.2% on average (higher or lower depending on the age of the woman).
   

Success Rates for IVF