With one in six couples trying for a baby needing to see a fertility specialist, fertility treatments are more commonplace that you might think. Some people think that “fertility centre” is synonymous with “IVF centre” but there are also a range of simpler treatments possible.
Here at Concept we generally advise people to try the simplest treatment first. However, the chances of success in a single treatment are usually higher with the more invasive, and more expensive, treatments such as IVF so it is a decision that patients must weigh up carefully. In addition, it is very often the case that patients come to us because they know they are approaching that age where fertility rates decline. In these scenarios their decisions are further complicated by the fact that a delay trying a simpler treatment first might mean that the chances of success in a more aggressive treatment become lower, simply by the fact that the patient will be that much older.
Most treatments involve monitoring by transvaginal 3D ultrasound. Usually the woman’s ovaries are stimulated using medications called gonadotrophins and another to trigger maturation of her eggs. Then the woman has intercourse naturally, or our doctor introduces sperm to the uterus via a catheter, or there is an operation to collect eggs and another procedure to transfer back the embryo.
