Where environmental factors such as smoking, obesity and stress are involved, treatment is aimed at removing or reducing the factor responsible. A number of treatments are available e.g., surgical hormone treatments, in Vitro Fertilization etc.
In Vitro Fertilization (Test-tube baby technique)
In vitro fertilization (IVF), means fertilization outside of the female body. IVF is the most effective types of assisted reproductive technology. It is often used when a women's fallopian tubes are blocked or when a man produces too few sperm. This is commonly known as the test-tube baby technique. The technique involves fertilizing one or more eggs outside the body and then transferring the fertilized eggs, known as pre-embryos, back into the uterus i.e., embryo transfer.
In this procedure, the ovary is stimulated with a drug, (having fertility FSH) to produce several eggs. Eggs can be collected from the follicle by sucking out the fluid contents of mature follicles with fine hollow needle which is inserted through the abdominal wall under general anaesthetic.
Sperms are collected from the male partner and washed in a culture fluid to remove seminal fluid. About 100,000 healthy sperms are added to each egg about six hours after egg collection. This is done in a glass dish or tube. The fertilized eggs are grown for about two days, after which they are usually at 2 to 8 cell stage. After examination under the microscope, the embryo are transferred through the cervix into the uterus using fine plastic tube. She is subsequently treated with progesterone to promote favourable uterine environment for implantation of the embryos.
