About Infertility Treatment

There are many effective treatments available for both male infertility and female infertility. The outcomes of infertility treatments have improved over the last several years, and it is estimated that 85 percent of patients who seek the care of an infertility specialist will achieve pregnancy.
It is extremely important that a fertility specialist be consulted early, especially if the female is 35 years old or older.

A specialist will order complete fertility work-ups for both the male and the female to ensure that all factors contributing to infertility are identified. Infertility specialists are also much more likely to move couples rapidly through available and appropriate treatment options. Sometimes our fertility specialists see women who have been on many rounds of Clomid, even though that drug is unlikely to work after three ovulatory cycles.

Our Dallas fertility clinic performs many of the necessary fertility tests locally. Rapid evaluation and treatment is especially critical in older women whose fertility may be declining precipitously.
Some degree of male infertility is present in up to half of all infertile couples. This makes the semen analysis a critical part of the fertility evaluation. No female treatment should begin until male infertility has been ruled out.

Fortunately, most couples under a fertility specialist’s care will become pregnant without the need for in vitro fertilization (IVF). Studies suggest that less than 15 percent of all couples that see a fertility specialist will require IVF. This percentage varies depending on many factors, such as the geographical location of a physician’s office and the nature of the practice.

Infertility treatments can be divided into three categories including: medical, surgical and assisted reproductive technologies. The latter includes IVF and the use of donor eggs. There is often more than one cause for a couple’s infertility, so different combinations of these infertility treatments may be used. We offer all services locally at our Dallas clinic.

Medical treatments include fertility drugs like Clomid, follicle stimulating hormone, human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), progesterone, Lupron, and many others. Most medical treatments are aimed at achieving regular ovulation. Treatments such as ovarian stimulation with FSH often are combined with techniques like intrauterine insemination (IUI). In an IUI cycle, the ovaries are stimulated with medication, and then the husband’s sperm is washed, concentrated, and placed directly in the uterus. Couples can also opt to use sperm from a donor.

Surgical treatments for infertility include the removal of endometriosis, the correction of uterine abnormalities, the removal of polyps or fibroids, or the repair of congenital disorders. Surgery may be employed to reverse tubal sterilization by reconnecting the fallopian tubes. In the male, surgery may be employed to correct a varicocele, remove blockages, or reverse a vasectomy.

Assisted reproductive technologies include a myriad of treatments, many of which have come into routine clinical usage over the last 15 years. In vitro fertilization (IVF) is commonly employed in many cases of infertility, including moderate to severe male infertility. Other candidates for IVF are older women, individuals who fail other treatments, and women with tubal blockage or damage. Use of donor eggs gives hope to many women who cannot use their own eggs. Other ART procedures include micromanipulation procedures that are used in conjunction with in vitro fertilization. Men who previously had no chance to produce a genetically related child can now father children using an IVF laboratory procedure known as intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). Using ICSI, a single sperm is inserted directly into the egg. The sperm can be obtained from ejaculate, or directly from the reproductive tract.

Other ART procedures that have positively impacted success rates include blastocyst embryo transfers. Transferring embryos on day 5 has allowed the incidence of multiple births to decrease due to higher implantation rates. Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), another ART procedure wherein 1-2 cells of the embryo are biopsied and tested, provides a means to effectively screen and prevent several genetic diseases in offspring.