For a lot of couples, infertility is a misfortune – one that involves a great deal of emotional anguish, grief and feelings of remorse and inadequacy. But, a diagnosis of infertility does not necessarily mean that you and your partner will not ever have a child of your own. It only suggests you have lower ability to get pregnant. You and your spouse can still have a baby, even one that is genetically relatedto at least one of you, through a number of assisted reproduction technologies or ARTs. Despite the fact that ARTs are often invasive, expensive, and are surrounded by controversies, these are good options to couples with involuntary childlessness. In the following paragraphs are some pieces of information about well-known ARTs.
In vitro fertilization
Also called IVF, this procedure is one of the most widely used assisted reproductive treatments these days. IVF is a treatment which involves permitting the fertilization the woman’s ovum and the man’s sperm cells occur outside the female body. This means that, the eggs and sperms are put together in a dish in a laboratory. After fertilization, the resulting embryo is then put into the recipient’s uterus.
Intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection
This is accomplished by putting the sperm cell inside the ovum by using a microneedle, instead of placing numerous sperm cells outside the ovum, which is the technique utilized in IVF. This is most commonly used when the father’s sperm count and motility is reduced.Gamete intrafallopian transfer (GIFT) and zygote intrafallopian transfer (ZIFT)
Similar to that of IVF, these methods entail obtaining an egg cell from the woman, fertilizing it, and then implanting the resultant embryo in the uterus. Rather than placing 3 to 5 day-old embryos, ZIFT injects fertilized eggs, called zygotes, while GIFT, puts a mixture of male and female gametes into the woman’s fallopian tubes. Since GIFT and ZIFT both require surgery, and because they have diminished success rate compared to IVF, they have largely gone out of favor in recent years.
Donated sperm or ova
If a woman or man cannot produce their own gametes, or has an inheritable disease, gametes from other individuals could be used to create an embryo. The healthy resultant embryos are then implanted into the recipient’s womb.
Surrogacy through a gestational carrier
This arrangement is an option for females whose medical condition makes pregnancy perilous or impossible, or when a woman does not have ovaries or uterus as a result of congenital absence or surgery. This ART is preferred to adoption because the child is genetically linked to one or both parents.
Surrogacy arrangements are complicated, and they come with many medical, financial, emotional, and even legal concerns. However, most of these issues can be managed adequately by working with a reputable surrogacy agency.
Check this out to find a company offering surrogacy programs in your area.