There are many factors that affect fertility in both men and women. From lifestyle and dietary habits, to age and genetics, to environmental pollution or day-to-day stress. Thus, many have not been able to become parents after trying for a year, which may mean that there are fertility problems in one or both partners and they need the help of Assisted Reproduction techniques to conceive.
How can Assisted Reproduction help me to have children?
After a year of unsuccessfully trying to become parents, it is recommended to visit a specialist in Assisted Reproduction to make a fertility study and advise on the most convenient method of Assisted Reproduction in each case. Technological advances in Assisted Reproduction have developed various effective treatments for different fertility situations or problems. The main Assisted Reproduction treatments are the following:
- Ovarian stimulation: ovarian stimulation is a process that is usually performed to improve the results of other Assisted Reproduction techniques. As described by Dr. Marbán Bermejo, specialist in Assisted Reproduction, “In Vitro Fertilization and Artificial Insemination require a better functioning of the ovaries in order to have several eggs and increase the chances of pregnancy”. This process consists of observing ovulation and administering specific hormones at the indicated time to produce more than one egg.
- Artificial insemination: it is a simple and the most frequent treatment, which can be performed with either the spouse’s sperm or with a donor sample. In this process, ovarian stimulation is performed to implant the semen sample into the woman’s uterus at the indicated moment in order to increase the chances of fertilization. According to the data provided by Dr. Fernandez-Shaw Zulueta, the probability of success of artificial insemination is 15-20% for each attempt, and increases to 35% on the third attempt.
- In Vitro Fertilization (IVF): this is the most complex treatment, since it consists of extracting the eggs and inseminating them with sperm in the laboratory to later implant them in the woman’s uterus already fertilized. Our expert Dr. Laiz Marro recommends this technique in couples who have not obtained good results with artificial insemination, who have low sperm quality or low ovarian reserve, or in women who present some obstruction in the Fallopian tubes.
- Ovodonation: this treatment is recommended for women who have not been able to get pregnant because of their fertility, either due to age or oocyte pathologies. It is based on inseminating a donor oocyte with the sperm of the couple’s male partner or a donor. According to our specialist in Egg Donation, Dr. Calatayud Lliso, this treatment is the most effective, with a pregnancy rate of almost 80%.
- Embryo donation: consists of transferring frozen embryos from other couples who have successfully undergone IVF into the woman’s uterus. The Institut Marqués center is a national reference for embryo transfer due to its large number of successes. It is used in cases where IVF has not been successful or in single mothers.
- Fertility preservation: this treatment has been on the rise in recent years, and it is used in patients who do not wish to be mothers at present but do want to be mothers in the future. Eggs obtained from ovarian stimulation are frozen so that they can be implanted at a later date.
When is the best time to conceive? Calculate your fertility
In every menstrual cycle there are several days, which are those that accompany ovulation, in which there is a greater probability of becoming pregnant. According to Dr. Díaz Bachiller, an expert in Reproduction, in order to calculate the fertile days of each month it is essential to know the menstrual cycle itself: in women who have regular menstrual cycles (28 days), ovulation occurs on the 14th day of the cycle. The oocyte will survive for 48 hours and the sperm for a few more days, so the fertile days will be the four days before and two days after ovulation.
When a woman has a regular cycle, a simple way to calculate the most fertile days is to subtract 12 to 16 days from the first day of the next menstrual period, which would correspond to the postovulatory phase days.