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Treatment
A host of fertility treatment options are available today. Physicians and their patients must collaborate to draft a course of action. One of the partners may need surgery and time to heal before starting treatment--for example, a vasectomy reversal or laparoscopic surgery for endometriosis.
Many physicians use fertility medications to try to increase their patients' chance of pregnancy. Fertility medications work by increasing the number of eggs that develop in a given month, raising the chance that at least one of them might be fertilized and develop into a pregnancy. Some couples may be able to conceive using fertility medications and timed intercourse or insemination, either with the man's sperm or sperm from a donor.
In in vitro fertilization (IVF), sperm and eggs are taken from the partners, united in the lab, and grown there for three to five days before being transferred into the woman's uterus. In general, physicians recommend the least invasive and most natural treatments first, unless advanced maternal age or an identified disorder dictate a more aggressive or specific approach. Some couples who feel like time is running out may try IVF first. However, IVF success rates decrease as women age.
For women whose eggs are of low quality, egg donors may be a solution; those who cannot carry a pregnancy on their own might consider a gestational carrier (surrogate).
This section has more information on:
Timed intercourse
Ovulation induction (fertility medications)
Ovarian hyperstimulation
Other medical treatments
Surgery
Artificial (intrauterine) insemination
Donor sperm
Assisted reproductive technology, including IVF
Surrogacy
Multiple pregnancies
Choosing a clinic
Financial issues
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