Are There New Infertility Treatments?
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The success rate of births at infertility clinics have doubled in the past decade and more and more couples are seeking infertility treatments to realize their dreams of having a child. In 2003, over 48,000 babies were born using assisted reproductive technology, states the Centers for Disease Control. “Success rates have improved dramatically in the last 10 years,” says Mousa Shamonki, MD, director of in vitro fertilization (IVF) at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine. Whether older women are looking to get pregnant or young couples have some sort of problem with ovulation or sperm production, there are a number of new infertility options available.
One of the most common treatments for infertility is to complete one to three cycles of ovarian stimulation and intrauterine insemination, says Guy Ringler M.D. By giving patients the drug Clomid, this will encourage women to produce more eggs. This method of treatment “will increase the pregnancy rate from about 3% per month to about 12-15% in women under age 40,” he says, “and to about 5-7% in those over age 40.” He says that most couples come to an infertility clinic requesting the more aggressive techniques because they don’t want to waste any time and the more invasive methods have proven to be more effective than medications.
Sometimes the cause of female infertility is unknown and the standard infertility treatments may not work — at which point, doctors may refer their patients to acupuncture specialists. Traditional Chinese medicine is growing in popularity, even though the results are mixed. One 2006 study showed that three acupuncture sessions before and after embryo transfer improved the fertilization rate, particularly in women over age 35. Another study revealed that acupuncture treatments boosted pregnancy rates by 10%. However, a third study showed that this complementary treatment showed no difference whatsoever. The benefit of acupuncture is that there are no adverse side effects. Even so, “It’s important that there is a dialogue between the reproductive endocrinologist and the Eastern practitioner if you are going to go along with a complementary treatment regimen,” advises endocrinologist Guy Ringler.
The CDC estimates that 37% of non-donor eggs and 50% of donor eggs used during infertility treatments resulted in live births. To many couples, visiting a specialist is well worth any risk. Arguably the best infertility help for couples trying to conceive is still said to be the drug Clomid to stimulate increased egg production and ovulation. Previously, doctors used the breast cancer drug Femara to induce ovulation, but a 2005 study presented at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine meeting revealed that 5% of the 150 babies born after the use of Femara had birth defects (compared to 2% of the 36,000 babies born without fertility treatment). Even though a June 2006 study found no statistical difference in birth defect rates from using Clomid or Femara, many couples remain skeptical of newer infertility methods.
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Tags: causes for male infertility, female infertility, infertility, male infertility treatment