Treating infertility
In a nutshell
Treatments such as clomifene therapy and IVF can help infertile people have babies. Clomifene therapy stimulates egg maturation and ovulation. IVF involves fertilising an egg outside of the body and then implanting the embryo into the female's uterus.
Clomifene therapy
Some females are infertile because they do not ovulate, or do not ovulate regularly. These females are given a drug called clomifene. Clomifene works by causing more follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinising hormone (LH) to be released by the body. This stimulates egg maturation and ovulation. By knowing when the female is ovulating, they can plan intercourse at this time to increase the chance of pregnancy.
| Advantages
| Disadvantages |
| It helps lots of previously infertile women get pregnant. | Too many eggs could be stimulated, resulting in multiple pregnancies (like triplets) which are very high-risk pregnancies for mothers. |
| It is easy to take as it comes in pill form. | It doesn't always work. |
| It is more cost-effective than fertility treatments such as IVF. | Some females may do the therapy multiple times which is expensive. |
| It does not require regular monitoring with ultrasounds and/or blood tests. | Side effects such as hot flushes and mood swings. |
In vitro fertilisation (IVF)
IVF involves collecting eggs from a female's ovaries and fertilising them in a lab using a male's sperm. These are then grown into embryos. Once the embryos are tiny balls of cells, a few of them are transferred to the female's uterus. Normally, the female is given FSH and LH before egg collection to stimulate egg production.
IVF is an example of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART): a fertility treatment that involves eggs being handled and normally fertilised, outside of the body.
| Advantages
| Disadvantages |
| It allows otherwise infertile people to have their own babies. | The hormonal drugs once again have side effects such as headaches and hot flushes. |
| It has a safe track record and has been used since 1978. | Like clomifene therapy, there is a possibility of multiple pregnancies. |
| The embryos can be screened for genetic diseases, which is important for families that already have an affected child. | It can cause ovarian hyper-stimulation syndrome when too many eggs develop in the ovaries. |
| Unused eggs can be used for research or donated to other couples. | It is very emotionally and physically stressful. |
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| The success rates are low. |
Advancements in technology
Advancements in microscope techniques have helped to improve the success rate of IVF. Specialised micro-tools have been developed to use on the eggs and sperm under a microscope. They can also remove single cells from the embryo for genetic testing to determine if it is healthy.
The development of time-lapse imaging means the growth of the embryos can be continuously monitored which helps identify those that are more likely to result in a successful pregnancy.
Ethical issues with IVF
Some people are against IVF. This is because IVF often results in unused embryos that are eventually destroyed. These people believe an embryo is a potential human life and destroying it is wrong.
Similarly, the genetic testing of embryos raises ethical issues as some people believe it could lead to 'designer babies' with certain characteristics such as eye colour being selected.
