Infertility is not an uncommon issue in the contemporary world and around 10.5% women of the world face secondary infertility and 2% are found to be facing primary infertility. To resolve the issue, various treatments have been developed. There are many centers providing infertility treatment in India and there are many specialized IVF centers in India.
What is a premature ovarian failure?
POF (Premature ovarian failure) is the malfunctioning of a woman’s ovaries. It affects nearly 1% of the world’s women population. The POF is identified by a low level of estrogens, absenteeism of menstrual bleeding and probability of starting up of autoimmune diseases in women who have not attained an age of 40 years. The issue is not permanent and can get corrected on its own. Thus, it has been renamed as ovarian insufficiency. This is also because 5% of the women who suffer from it are able to conceive without the assistance of any fertility treatment.
IVF and POF
The woman who has decided to go for the treatment must be dedicated with a commitment to achieve positive results and not disheartened with failure. The specialists who are taking the course of traditional IVF cycles may decline it and switch to IUI when the number of ovarian follicles is less than the required.
When the woman is suffering from POF, the possibility of having an acceptable number of ovarian follicles is always low but this does not eliminate the probability of success if the IVF treatment. There can be times when physicians have to give up the wait for egg retrieval and they instead proceed to wait for an optimal cycle for success.
Natural cycle IVF
The women who are diagnosed with POF are best treated with Natural cycle IVF that is IVF for their infertility. Follicle-stimulating hormones fail to respond to fertility medication when they are too high. Similarly when a woman is suffering from POF even the smallest amount of stimulation is more than normal for her. In some cases where the menstrual cycle takes more than 28 days, when suppression is given through medication, the FSH levels can be suppressed letting them reach normal making it possible for the ovarian follicles to develop.
The commonly used suppressors of FSH include Estradiol, any substance containing estrogenic/progestational qualities, and DHEA.
The ovarian follicle growth can be determined with the help of ultrasounds. The hormone levels are checked by evaluation of the FSH levels, LH, progesterone, and estradiol.
All in all, fertility treatments such as IVF for women suffering from POF are difficult but not impossible. The woman and the physicians both need a lot of patience and tolerance and switch to different alternatives while providing the treatment. A host of tests and ultrasounds are also performed continuously to examine the progress of the treatment and determine any complications that may arise during the treatment.