FAQs

The proceeding information came from The American Society of Reproductive Medicine.

What is Infertility?

Infertility is the result of a disease (an interruption, cessation, or disorder of body functions, systems, or organs) of the male or female reproductive tract which prevents the conception of a child or the ability to carry a pregnancy to delivery. The duration of unprotected intercourse with failure to conceive should be about 12 months before an infertility evaluation is undertaken, unless medical history, age, or physical findings dictate earlier evaluation and treatment.

What is normal fertility and when does it become infertility?

If you've been trying to get pregnant for more than a year, you may have infertility.

Infertility is a disease of the reproductive system that impairs one of the body's most basic functions: the conception of children. Conception is a complicated process that depends upon many factors.

on the production of healthy sperm by the man and healthy eggs by the woman;
unblocked fallopian tubes that allow the sperm to reach the egg;
the sperm's ability to fertilize the egg when they meet;
the ability of the fertilized egg (embryo) to become implanted in the woman's uterus;
and sufficient embryo quality.

Finally, for the pregnancy to continue to full term, the embryo must be healthy and the woman's hormonal environment adequate for its development.

When just one of these factors is impaired, infertility can result.

How common is infertility?

Infertility affects 10%-15% of couples. This makes it one of the most common diseases for people between the ages of 20 and 45. In addition, the longer a woman tries to get pregnant without conceiving, the lower are her chances to get pregnant without medical treatment. Most (85%) couples with normal fertility will conceive within a year of trying. If a couple doesn’t conceive in the first year, their chance of conceiving gets lower each month. This happens more quickly as the woman gets older.

What can cause infertility in women?

A woman's age can have a big effect on her ability to have a baby, especially as she enters her 30s and 40s. For a healthy woman in her 20s or early 30s, the chances of conceiving each month is 25%-30%. But by the time a woman is 40 years old, the chances are 10% or less.

The most common female infertility factor is an ovulation disorder. Other causes of female infertility include blocked fallopian tubes, which can occur when a woman has had pelvic inflammatory disease or endometriosis (a sometimes painful condition causing adhesions and cysts). Congenital anomalies (birth defects) involving the structure of the uterus and uterine fibroids are associated with repeated miscarriages.

What can cause infertility in men?

The most common male infertility factors include azoospermia (no sperm cells are produced) and oligospermia (few sperm cells are produced). Sometimes, sperm cells are malformed or they die before they can reach the egg. In rare cases, infertility in men is caused by a genetic disease such as cystic fibrosis or a chromosomal abnormality.

What is In Vitro Fertilization?

Why is In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) used?

In infertile couples where women have blocked or absent fallopian tubes, or where men have low sperm counts, in vitro fertilization (IVF) offers a chance at parenthood to couples who until recently would have had no hope of having a "biologically related" child.

What is the process of In Vitro Fertilization (IVF)?

In IVF, eggs are surgically removed from the ovary and mixed with sperm outside the body in a Petri dish ("in vitro" is Latin for "in glass"). After about 40 hours, the eggs are examined to see if they have become fertilized by the sperm and are dividing into cells. These fertilized eggs (embryos) are then placed in the woman's uterus, thus bypassing the fallopian tubes.

When was In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) first introduced?

IVF was introduced in the United States in 1981. Since 1985, when we began counting, through the end of 2006, almost 500,000 babies have been born in the United States as a result of reported Assisted Reproductive Technology procedures (IVF, GIFT, ZIFT, and combination procedures). IVF currently accounts for more than 99% of ART procedures with GIFT, ZIFT and combination procedures making up the remainder. The average live delivery rate for IVF in 2005 was 31.6 percent per retrieval--a little better than the 20 percent chance in any given month that a reproductively healthy couple has of achieving a pregnancy and carrying it to term. In 2002, approximately one in every hundred babies born in the US was conceived using ART and that trend continues today.

What are the risks of In Vitro Fertilization (IVF)?

What are the possible side effects of injectable fertility medicines?

Soreness and mild bruising at the injection site.
Nausea, mood swings, fatigue.
Breast tenderness and increased vaginal discharge.
Temporary allergic reactions.
Ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS)

What are the possible risks of egg retrieval?

Mild to moderate pelvic and abdominal pain.
Very rarely, bowel or blood vessel injury can require emergency surgery.

What are the risks associated with embryo transfer?

Women may feel mild cramping or vaginal spotting afterward.
Very rarely, an infection may develop, which can usually be treated with antibiotics.

Is In Vitro Fertilization Expensive?

The average cost for one in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycle is $12,000. Basic IVF can be as much as $15,000 or may be as low as $10,000. It's rarely lower than that. These numbers do not include the cost of medications, which may be as low as $1,500 or as high as $3,000 per cycle.