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The aim of any medical treatment for any condition (not just fertility problems) is to restore the body and mind to its normal structural and functional state. Of course exactly what is 'normal. will depend on age, sex, ethnic origin and previous state of heath.
Just how much benefit can be gained from each treatment - how good a prospect of getting pregnant - will depend on the nature and severity of the cause of your fertility problem. Female age is a very important factor.
There is however a paradox in that the less the deviation from normal than the less the benefit to be gained from correcting the problem. Put another way the slighter the problem the harder it is to treat or alternatively, the bigger the problem the greater the benefit of treatment.
For example, if a normal healthy 21 year old woman damages her knee and then undergoes successful treatment to correct the problem. It would be reasonable to expect her to be able to walk normally and most likely to be able to run a kilometer without great difficulty. On the other hand, we would not expect her (unless she was an olympic runner) to be able to run 100 meters in under 15 seconds. The treatment is able to restore normality but not produce 'super' normal function.
Compare this situation with fertility treatments where a pregnancy is often expected as a result of a single month of treatment. - a result which may far exceed normal function. When considering the results of fertility treatments it is wise to keep in mind the normal chance of achieving a pregnancy is 85% in one year if the female partner is less than 30. This means that about 20 couples out of 100 will be successful in getting pregnant in the first month of trying, but by the 12th month only about 3 or 4 will do so with the average number of couples getting pregnant per month being 7 out of 100. That is, the longer you have been trying to fall pregnant the lower the monthly chance of pregnancy becomes.
Improving on nature
Fertility treatments can broadly divided into those which either reduce the adverse effect on fertility of specific causes or those which increase the overall chance of pregnancy without being directed at a specific disease. Cause specific treatments lead to an improvement in the background chance of pregnancy. For example if a couples background chance of pregnancy is 1% per month and a treatment leads to a doubling of the chance of pregnancy then their prospect of pregnancy is then 2% per month. On the other hand problem specific treatment - an example of which is IVF - attempt to increase the overall prospect of pregnancy by optimising as many aspects of the reproduction process as possible. Over the last 20 years there have been vast improvements in the assisted conception technology that underlies IVF to the point that it is able to provide pregnancy rates that are vastly superior than cause specific treatments.
Treatment directed at the causes of infertility
- Timing sex
- Assisting Ovulation
- Treating low sperm counts
- Treatment of endometriosis
- Unblocking Fallopian tubes
- Treating Fibroids and other uterine problems
- Sperm, egg and embryo donation
Treatment directed at the problem of infertility