Increasing Fertility Flashcards
Why may a woman want help increasing fertility?
some women have levels of FSH that are too low to cause their eggs to mature meaning that no eggs are released and the woman can’t get pregnant
what hormones would be put in a fertility drug to increase fertility?
FSH and LH to stimulate ovulation
what are the advantages of the fertility drug?
it helps a lot of woman get pregnant when they initially could not
what are the disadvantages of the IVF/taking FSH?
-it doesn’t always work- some woman may have to do it many times which can be expensive
-too many eggs could be stimulated resulting in unexpected multiple pregnancies e.g. twins and triplets which may lead to complications
How does IVF work?
1)this involves collecting eggs from the woman’s ovaries fertlising them in a lab using the man’s sperm
2) it can also involve a technique called intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) where the sperm is injected directly into an egg- this is useful if the man has a low sperm count
3)the fertilised eggs are then grown into embryos in a laboratory incubator
3)once the embryos are tiny balls of cells, one o two of them are transferred to the women’s uterus to improve the chance of getting pregnant
-FSH an LH are given before egg collection to stimulate several eggs to mature so several eggs can be collected
what are the advantages of IVF?
fertility treatment can help give a couple a child where initially they wouldn’t have been able too
what are the disadvantages of IVF?
-multiple births can happen if more than one embryo grows into a baby- these are risky for the mother and babies as there is a higher risk of miscarriage
-the success rate of IVF is low- the average success rate in the UK is only around 26% making the process very stressful and often upsetting if it ends in multiple failures
-it could have some physical impacts as some women have a strong reaction to the hormones leading to abdominal pain, vomiting, dehydration etc.
What has been done to improve the success rate of IVF?
-specialised micro tools have been developed to use on the eggs and sperm under a microscope . They’re also used to remove single cells from the embryo for genetic testing to check it is healthy
-the development of time lapse imaging also means that the growth of the embryos can be continuously monitored to help identify those that are more likely to result in a successful pregnancy
Why are some people against IVF?
-the process often results in unused embryos that are eventually destroyed which some think are unethical as each embryo is a potential human life
-the genetic testing done before implantation may also be seen as unethical as it could lead to selection of preferred characteristics such as gender or eye colour
