What to Expect Before an Infertility Procedure

an infertility procedure

What to Expect Before an Infertility Procedure

If you and your partner have trouble getting pregnant, your regular health care provider may recommend that you see a gynecologist, urologist, or family doctor who treats infertility. This specialist can do a medical evaluation and find out what’s causing your infertility, or refer you to a fertility clinic or specialist.불임시술

Before you start an infertility procedure, your doctor will do a pelvic exam and blood tests to check for a hormone imbalance or structural problems. You’ll also have a test to find out whether you’re ovulating, and another to determine if your tubes are clear.

You’ll also have a physical and get a detailed medical history. Bring your key medical information, including your partner’s medical history and any previous infertility evaluations.

Many conditions that cause infertility can be treated with surgery. Fertility specialists often use this treatment for women with a structural issue in the uterus or fallopian tubes, or with a condition like endometriosis that causes tissue to grow on the inside of the uterus (womb) instead of where it should. Surgery can also help women with a fibroid or ovarian cyst, and can correct a vaginal septum that’s narrow or closed.

A surgical procedure called a laparoscopy can be used to diagnose and treat conditions that cause infertility, such as endometriosis, scar tissue, and uterine fibroids. It involves inserting a thin, lighted tube, called a hysteroscope, into the vagina or uterus and using instruments inserted through the scope to treat what’s found. It’s often done in a doctor’s office with sedation.

In vitro fertilization, or IVF, is a fertility treatment that uses a woman’s egg and sperm to get pregnant. The resulting embryo can be transferred into the uterus, or it can be stored in frozen form to try to conceive again later. It’s also an option for people who want to avoid a genetic disorder or for members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTIAQ+) community who are having difficulty finding a sperm donor.

For IVF, you’ll take medicine to stimulate ovulation and produce several eggs. Once these eggs have reached a certain size, you’ll have a minor surgery to remove them, a process called oocyte retrieval. Then, a team of doctors will mix the best eggs with sperm. Depending on your situation, your doctor might also inject the sperm directly into an egg, a process called intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). If you’re trying to conceive with your partner’s sperm, they’ll give him a semen sample on the day of oocyte retrieval. If you’re using donated sperm, your fertility specialist will extract a sample from the epididymis, a coil-like structure that helps store and transport sperm in the testicles. You’ll be told on the same day about the quality of the sperm or the number of eggs retrieved. If the eggs don’t fertilize, you can ask your doctor to do an additional procedure called assisted hatching, which opens part of the outer covering of an egg, increasing its chances of being fertilized.서울아이앤여성의원