We hear a lot of horror stories today about women undergoing fertility treatment and having a whole litter of children—upwards of 8! Even though this is happening, that shouldn’t dissuade you from undergoing treatment if you’re healthy, willing, and unable to get pregnant by natural means. Many of these fertility treatments are modern miracles, giving hope to expanding families that have no other options.
When it comes to finding the right treatment plan for you, there are lots of options. When you consult your doctor about it, they’ll probably suggest the least invasive forms of therapy first, then moving on to more advanced treatments if there’s no success. Stifle the urge to go with the big guns at the first shot; and by that I mean in vitro fertilization (IVF) and the like.
By starting with fertility drugs or surgery, you’ll be paying less and they’re often wonderfully effective. In fact, about 90% of couples find success with these initial attempts.
Basically, when your hormones are out of whack, fertility drugs can help your reproductive system to get itself into order. They also are quite safe and work well with other treatments.
Sometimes artificial insemination is the answer, when your partner’s sperm simply can’t make it to the egg. With this therapy, the sperm is brought in a high dosage directly into the uterus at the right time, to significantly improve the odds of getting pregnant.
Often surgery is the answer to fertilization problems. A number of problems can be bypassed with surgery, such as blocked fallopian tubes, fibroids, endometriosis, defects, cysts, and such. With a fiber-thin tube, doctors can diagnose your problem and help you conceive despite the problem.
Assisted reproductive technology, or ART, assists when the problem is due to low sperm count or blocked fallopian tubes. When this does not work, often the answer is using an egg donor or surrogate mother, in the most extreme of cases.
The fact of the matter is that fertility treatments are not cheap. For the average ART therapy, you can pay up to $12,000 for a single try. Many health insurance policies do not cover fertility therapy, so you can imagine what the out of pocket bill will look like. Do check your policy before you begin any treatment. There are 14 states that require insurance to diagnose and cover some of these procedures, so see if you’re one.
It’s never a bad idea to focus on diet and alternative methods to promote fertility. For thousands of years, humans have had fertility problems, and many of these ancient “secrets” can help you get pregnant.
