Misconceptions about fertility treatment
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By Lee Hye-jun
As more women are having their first child at later ages and the infertility rate increases, the need for fertility treatment is rising. Fertility treatment includes all the medications and procedures to assist couples to conceive, such as clomiphene, gonadotropin, intrauterine insemination (IUI) and in vitro fertilization (IVF). Faced with infertility, women rely largely on the information which they get from friends or web surfing. However, what you hear is not always true.
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Fertility drugs will deplete my ovarian reserve more quickly.
Fertility treatment usually involves fertility drugs including clomiphene and gonadotropin. Naturally women release one egg a month — occasionally ovulation of two eggs makes twins. Fertility drugs make women produce more than one egg to increase chances of conception. Then, would women use up the eggs more quickly after fertility treatment and reach menopause earlier?
Women are born with two million eggs. As women age, this number continuously declines and reaches 300,000 at puberty. At ages 30 to 40 when many women undergo fertility treatment, the number of eggs in their reservoirs are approximately 25,000 to 100,000 on average. In general, fertility drugs induce ovulation of three to four eggs for IUI and five to 10 eggs for IVF. Therefore, even after five cycles of fertility treatment, less than 100 eggs would be released, a number insignificant to the total number of eggs. Only 400 eggs in total are ovulated in a women’s lifetime and menopause occurs when the remaining eggs fall below 1,000. Thus, women would have plenty of eggs left to ovulate until menopause.
Additionally, fertility drugs can rescue the eggs that would have died. Every month, several eggs prepare themselves to be ovulated, but only one egg gets selected while others fall into programmed cell death. Fertility drugs can stimulate the eggs destined to die and make them reach ovulation. In other words, with or without fertility drugs, a women’s ovarian reserve diminishes at a greater degree than one egg a month.
Absolute bed rest increases pregnancy rates after fertility treatment.
Stress is definitely a deteriorating factor for pregnancy, so a lot of women quit their jobs and take it easy to have a baby. Elderly people, particularly in Asia, strongly advise women to stay in bed during the important period, from implantation throughout early pregnancy. In fact, many women go for an absolute bed rest, so called “corps-play” after fertility treatment.
However, absolute bed rest for pregnancy is medically groundless. There is no doubt a good rest and no stress are both beneficial for pregnancy, but staying at bed all day long would only increase risks of blood clotting. Moreover, sperm and embryos do not fall out when women walk straight up. If sperm or embryos stay put only when women lay flat, it would be almost impossible for most of women to get pregnant.
A decision to get fertility treatment is never easy. Besides, concerns and misconceptions over fertility treatment often discourage couples’ desire to have a baby. For the past several decades, however, fertility treatment has been safely performed, assisting millions of couples to build families. You must trust your fertility doctor over anonymous sources on the internet. He/she will explain the possible risks and inform you of special instructions if necessary. After all, your fertility doctor is the one who wants you to get pregnant the most, after you.
The writer is a doctor at Maria Fertility Hospital in Seoul. For further questions, send an e-mail to the writer at hyejunlee@mariababy.com, or call the hospital’s English-speaking coordinator at 82 (Korea country code) 2 (Seoul area code) 2250-5577, or visit the hospital’s website, https://eng.mariababy.com/.