Infertility can be caused due to variety of reasons i.e. fallopian tubal disease e.g. blocked tubes, poor or no sperm count, substance abuse e.g. smoking, alcohol, drugs etc, health problems e.g. Cancer Chlamydia etc, all these can affect fertility, however for 30% of the couples seeking help about their infertility is unexplained.
There are various treatments available for infertility, usually starting with medication. If a male has low sperm count or had vasectomy; had sperm frozen or faulty genes within the sperm, then either AIH or AID can help the male to be fertile. Artificial Insemination by husband (AIH) is when the husband’s sperm is inserted into his wife by mechanicals, and then the sperm will be placed in the woman’s cervix with an instrument at the most fertile time of her cycle. However, if the husband has had a vasectomy he may have had some of his sperm frozen then the couple will need to use AID, Artificial Insemination by donor this is when a man donates sperm which then is inserted by mechanicals into the mother; it takes an average of three attempts before pregnancy occurs.
On the other hand, there are also various infertility treatments available for females. If a female has got fallopian tubal disease or has had Hysterectomy; the removal of the uterus then the female would consider egg donation or surrogacy. Egg donation is used when a woman does not ovulate (produce eggs) this is when an egg is donated by another woman and fertilized by in-vitro fertilisation (IVF, fertilization taking place outside the body) using the husbands sperm and then placed into the wife’s womb. However, if a woman has had her womb/uterus removed, or if it would be dangerous for the woman to bear child, she may consider surrogacy. Surrogacy is when the egg of a woman are fertilised by IVF and then placed into another woman’s womb, after the birth the woman hands the baby to the husband and wife.
Overall, there are various treatments available in the UK, alternative treatments for both the husband and wife is the embryo donation. Embryo donation is when the couple have multiple problems such as low sperm count, ineffective ovaries or simply unexplained infertility then embryo donation will be used, this is when both and sperm come from donors and are fertilized using IVF.
