A visit to an IVF and Test Tube Baby centre is all one needs to realize where technology has taken us. Which side of the coin should be considered, positive or negative, is a dilemma. One would find more number of footwear outside an IVF centre than found outside a temple. On one hand where it’s heartbreaking to see people disheartened with the troubles they face in conceiving a child, hence fulfilling their dream of parenthood with scientific and unnatural way, there on the other hand this technology comes across as a boon for these people as it is the only way to gift them the bliss that naturally couldn’t be attained.
Doctors come across couples in the spectrum of 25 years to 65 years; some longing for a child from decade and more, and some who have a child already but wish to enjoy the joy of giving birth to a child again, these two conditions are called primary infertility and secondary infertility respectively. Experts at fertility centres say that fitness and a healthy lifestyle indeed improves the chances of fertility in an individual but doesn’t guarantee though.
The factors realized behind the drastic change in the fertility amongst people in present era, is the changing lifestyle. Stress, imbalanced diet, unhealthy habits, exposure to radiation due to technology centric life and delay in marriage that consequently leads to late conceiving are namely the major cause of the present scenario. Looking at the current situation, when asked about future of IVF, Scientific Director at Indira IVF and Test Tube baby centre, Dr. Ajay Murdia says, IVF is here to stay; it’ll be a savior to all miseries that come with infertility. 50 years down the line, IVF will be a synonym to pregnancy; he added.
In males, the common problems observed are tubal blockages, low sperm count, low quality & defective sperm and problem in the pituitary gland which leads to some hormonal imbalance causing low sperm formation or no sperm formation in the testes. In women facing trouble in conceiving, problems identified are tubal blocks, ovarian cyst, endometriosis, adenomyosis and hormonal imbalance that further affect formation of eggs. In some cases the couples are seen to have desire to reproduce, but due to permanent contraception like vasectomy and tubectomy, natural conceiving isn’t possible, hence with aid of IVF they achieve their desire. Age being the top factor behind inability to produce eggs in a woman, there is an option of opting donated eggs. Similarly, donated sperms are the last resort for couple in case the male partner due to some reason can’t produce sperms.
IVF is associated with various taboos created by the society, and hence it’s important to create awareness about it amongst people. It’s crucial for them to know that in IVF, only the embryo formation takes place outside the body and once the embryo is ready, it’s injected in the womb of woman and rest of the procedure takes place like any normal pregnancy. Also, there are misconceptions regarding the health and fertility of the child born through this process. The facts are a total contrast to the myths in this case, health of child isn’t certain even in the normal pregnancy, neither it can’t be predicted in case of IVF, but, the incredible feature that IVF has is, it can prevent genetic disorders taking place in a child by technically removing the extra chromosome, this technology is specifically useful for couples who’ve history of genetic disorders in family. Whereas the fertility of the child born through IVF is concerned, Louise Brown, the first IVF baby has kids by natural pregnancy.
Earlier the sperm count usually seen used to be 80-90 million which today has dropped to less than 50% of it, in worse cases it’s found to be just 2-3 millions which strikes out the chances of a healthy sperm reaching and fusing with the egg in female partner. In such case, single sperm is extracted from the testes and injected directly in the egg of female partner; this process takes place outside the body of either partner and is called ICSI (Intra Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection). In some women, conceiving isn’t a problem but the problem arises when the embryo doesn’t get attached with the uterus and miscarriage take place, surrogacy comes into pictures in such circumstance.
Certainly technology is a sword that attacks and protects, it proved to be true in case of fertility as well. It’s the major reason behind the jeopardy but the only solution that can help one get overcome its adverse affects.