Since the introduction of IVF techniques for treatment of infertile
couples, millions of babies are born .But again IVF does not work in all
cases!
Fortunately, some technical advances in field of reproductive medicine have come up which strives to give positive results even in cases where chances of success are poor. In few subset of patients like repeated IVF failures, azoospermic male infertility and increased maternal age etc, these may prove beneficial to improve odds of success during IVF treatments.
1) Genetic Screening- PGS (Preimplantation Genetic Screening)
There is a tendency for older women's eggs to have an abnormal number of chromosomes, which can cause miscarriages. Also certain diseases are genetically transmitted which are to be screened prior to implantation. For these cases PGS has a beneficial role, by giving an opportunity to transfer only normal embryos and reject the abnormal ones based on their screening results of PGS.
In this technique embryologist take one cell from each embryo and analyze the DNA. They then only use the embryos with a normal number of chromosomes.
So theoretically, PGS increases the chances a woman will become pregnant from an IVF cycle, and evidence from a clinical trial suggests that screening embryos does give birth rates a boost.
2) Egg Freezing / Oocyte cryopreservation-
Egg freezing has nowadays gained popularity among professional female aspirants to have opportunity to preserve their eggs when they are young and have good ovarian reserve. But it is an invasive and expensive procedure. And it doesn't guarantee a woman will become pregnant with her frozen eggs when she uses them in the future.
The American Society for Reproductive Medicine doesn't actually recommend the procedure for women who want to delay having children. It only advises egg freezing for women about to undergo chemotherapy or another necessary medical procedure that would damage their ovaries and make them permanently infertile.
There's not yet enough data about what happens when women freeze their eggs to use later. For the time being, it's seen as a gamble - an attempt to hold onto a possibility - not an insurance policy.
3) IMSI- (Intracytoplasmic Morphologically Selected Sperm Injection)
It is a variation of ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection), the technique of selecting and injecting sperm into the middle of the egg.
IMSI uses a new incredibly high-powered microscope during the selection process to exclude unsuitable sperm The IMSI technique considerably speeds up the process of selecting high-quality sperm as it makes it much easier to spot sperm that do not have the correct structure, which reduce the success rate of IVF.
4) Micro TESE-
TESE (Testicular sperm Extraction) is a common surgical technique used for cases of Non obstructive Azoospermia(nil sperms in semen). But failure to extract spermatozoa may occur in up to 57% of TESE attempts. Here comes the role of micro TESE which uses an operating microscope to identify regions containing spermatozoa in the testes of men with azoospermia. Since the difference between the larger and smaller tubules is not visible without optical magnification, this technique of microdissection resulted in an improvement of sperm retrieval rates from 45 to 63%. In men where no spermatozoa were found in a non-microsurgical single testicular biopsy procedure, the retrieval rate was 35%.
Fortunately, some technical advances in field of reproductive medicine have come up which strives to give positive results even in cases where chances of success are poor. In few subset of patients like repeated IVF failures, azoospermic male infertility and increased maternal age etc, these may prove beneficial to improve odds of success during IVF treatments.
1) Genetic Screening- PGS (Preimplantation Genetic Screening)
There is a tendency for older women's eggs to have an abnormal number of chromosomes, which can cause miscarriages. Also certain diseases are genetically transmitted which are to be screened prior to implantation. For these cases PGS has a beneficial role, by giving an opportunity to transfer only normal embryos and reject the abnormal ones based on their screening results of PGS.
In this technique embryologist take one cell from each embryo and analyze the DNA. They then only use the embryos with a normal number of chromosomes.
So theoretically, PGS increases the chances a woman will become pregnant from an IVF cycle, and evidence from a clinical trial suggests that screening embryos does give birth rates a boost.
2) Egg Freezing / Oocyte cryopreservation-
Egg freezing has nowadays gained popularity among professional female aspirants to have opportunity to preserve their eggs when they are young and have good ovarian reserve. But it is an invasive and expensive procedure. And it doesn't guarantee a woman will become pregnant with her frozen eggs when she uses them in the future.
The American Society for Reproductive Medicine doesn't actually recommend the procedure for women who want to delay having children. It only advises egg freezing for women about to undergo chemotherapy or another necessary medical procedure that would damage their ovaries and make them permanently infertile.
There's not yet enough data about what happens when women freeze their eggs to use later. For the time being, it's seen as a gamble - an attempt to hold onto a possibility - not an insurance policy.
3) IMSI- (Intracytoplasmic Morphologically Selected Sperm Injection)
It is a variation of ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection), the technique of selecting and injecting sperm into the middle of the egg.
IMSI uses a new incredibly high-powered microscope during the selection process to exclude unsuitable sperm The IMSI technique considerably speeds up the process of selecting high-quality sperm as it makes it much easier to spot sperm that do not have the correct structure, which reduce the success rate of IVF.
4) Micro TESE-
TESE (Testicular sperm Extraction) is a common surgical technique used for cases of Non obstructive Azoospermia(nil sperms in semen). But failure to extract spermatozoa may occur in up to 57% of TESE attempts. Here comes the role of micro TESE which uses an operating microscope to identify regions containing spermatozoa in the testes of men with azoospermia. Since the difference between the larger and smaller tubules is not visible without optical magnification, this technique of microdissection resulted in an improvement of sperm retrieval rates from 45 to 63%. In men where no spermatozoa were found in a non-microsurgical single testicular biopsy procedure, the retrieval rate was 35%.
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