Relevant information about Fertility.
Fertility and InFertility
In simple words, Fertility is the ability to become pregnant, in woman, or to make woman pregnant, in men. If after twelve months of regular sexual relations (and without birth control) a couple hasn’t been able to become pregnant and conceive a child, this couple is called infertile. Is a fact that there is a natural declination of fertility in women. Usually it starts at the age of 27, speeds up at 35, and after 40, it declines even more steeply.
Why is that? Health and the aging process are related in different ways to the decline of fertility. Some people think that if women has a healthy lifestyle, age will not affect her fertility. It is only a myth. Fertility declination is a natural and unavoidable process. As women are born with a limited number of eggs, this number will be declining over time.
Bodies' reproductive capabilities slow down and become less effective even before menopause begins, and ovaries respond less well to the hormones that are responsible for helping the eggs ovulate.
Unhealthy habits may speed up the decline of fertility but this natural process will happen in all women anyway. Biological clock runs for everybody.
Fertility and age
Despite some couples got pregnant in their early forties and some others have fertility problems in their twenties, there is an expected evolution of the decline process. Fertility peaks in most women in the twenties, and gradually begins to decline in the late twenties. At around age 35, fertility starts to decline at a much more rapid pace.
This is the evolution of the majority of cases but not all of them and not always. The chances of getting pregnant after age 35 are lower and may be more difficult than in twenties but it’s not necessarily impossible and not everyone has trouble on it.
On the other side, infertility is not limited to older couples. While it’s true that infertility is more common after 35, infertility can strike at any age. It may come as a surprise but it is not so uncommon couples in their twenties or thirties with trouble getting pregnant and dealing with infertility.
There is also, an increased risk of birth defects and miscarriage related to age. Chances of genetic problems, child with down syndrome an risk for miscarriage rise with age. Inevitably infertility begins to affect over time, chances of getting pregnant decrease, risk of miscarriage and birth defects increase and fertility treatment success also decreases with age.
That is why is really important to ask for help if you are having trouble. The sooner you get help, the better your chances of treatment success.
Treatments
Couples who haven’t been able to get pregnant after twelve months of regular sexual relations are couples with fertility trouble. There are many different kinds of infertility treatments and before start one is quite important to talk about all the issues involved: how far you want to go, what you expect from the treatment, the anxiety and excitement provoked, feelings around parenthood, between others.
Treatments come with a heavy emotional burden and can also be quite expensive.
Artificial insemination and Embryo donation are two important surgeries when it comes to fertility treatments. Will describe them detail-fully.
Artificial insemination or AI
Artificial insemination it is not only used for human couples with troubles to conceive. Now a days it is also widely used for livestock breeding. In humans, it was originally developed when there were 'male factor' problems. Today, women with no male partner are the more common situation. Anyway, it is an assisted reproductive technology to treat infertility. In this process, without sexual intercourse, sperm is placed into the reproductive tract of a female for the purpose of getting her pregnant. Sperm can be provided by the woman’s male partner (artificial insemination by husband, AIH) or by a known or anonymous sperm donor (artificial insemination by donor, AID or DI). If, for example, the woman's partner produces too few motile sperm, if he carries a genetic disorder, or if the woman has no male partner. The procedure involves inserting the semen (that may be fresh or it may be frozen which has been thawed) into the woman's vagina or uterus when an ovum is released.
Embryo donation
Embryo donation is another possible treatment for couples with troubles to conceive. Is is also called In vitro fertilization, or IVF, and is a form of third party reproduction. The woman from the couple who wants to get pregnant receives an embryo from another woman who has already carried one or more pregnancies to term and successfully. This extra embryos, unused at the moment, are transferred from one women to another with the goal of producing a successful pregnancy. The child conceived from this embryo donation is not conceived the child of the donor because it is legally considered a property transfer and not an adoption. The woman who carries the baby and gives birth is considered the mother of that child.
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