The post Using the pill could affect your fertility appeared first on All4Baby.
]]>Ovarian reserve is a measure of the ovary’s capacity to produce fertile oocytes (egg cells). Modern science assesses it via two measures: levels of anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH) in the blood and the number of early (antral) follicles in the ovary.
The latter is quantified by means of a vaginal ultrasound in a test of antral follicles count (AFC), which coupled with AMH testing provides the most reliable measure of fertility, with the two considered indicators of ovarian age.
Researchers tested 833 women between the ages of 19 and 46 and found the AFC measurements 16 percent lower in pill users and AMH levels down 19 percent.
An unexpected additional finding was that pill users’ ovaries were between 29 and 52 percent smaller than those of non-pill users, particularly in the youngest of the subjects, between the ages of 19 and 29.9.
AMH was still up to 30 percent lower and AFC up to 20 percent lower in pill users after the results were statistically adjusted for age, BMI, smoking, maternal age at menopause, maternal smoking during pregnancy and prematurity.
“We expected to find an effect of the Pill,” says Dr. Katherine Birch Petersen, from the Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark. “But during the project we were surprised at the quantified effect on ovarian reserve parameters as defined by anti-Müllerian hormone, antral follicle count and ovarian volume.”
To what degree the pill’s effects on the ovaries are permanent and how long they last is yet to be discovered, says Dr. Birch Peterson, who remains optimistic that they are temporary but says additional research is necessary to better understand the recovery phase after women stop taking the pill.
Although statistics indicate plenty of pill users eventually become pregnant, the effects of long term pill use have remained a concern.
Dr. Birch Peterson advises pill users not to count on AFC and AMC tests as an accurate measure of fertility and says that tests should be repeated three months after having stopped pill use for a better measure of fertility potential.
“The Pill may mask a severely diminished ovarian reserve,” says Dr. Birch Peterson, “and this is important to recognize.”
(AFP Relaxnews)
The post Using the pill could affect your fertility appeared first on All4Baby.
]]>The post What to expect from IVF appeared first on All4Baby.
]]>IVF is a medical technique used for couples experiencing a variety of infertility problems—in particular, male factor problems, endometriosis, advanced maternal age or blocked or damaged fallopian tubes.
Here is an explanation of the process:
Before you start, the doctor will complete a thorough diagnostic and treat you and your partner for any conditions that might compromise your fertility (including medical conditions like auto-immune problems or elevated sugar levels, lifestyle issues like a high BMI, smoking or excessive alcohol intake, and emotional conditions like stress).
If the doctor diagnoses IVF as a solution for your fertility problems, you and your partner will need to assess the cost and emotional challenges of the process and decide if it is right for you to go ahead.
If you choose to begin IVF, the doctor will determine which programme is best for you (either short course or long course IVF—these differ in duration but contain many of the same elements).
The clinic staff will then create a detailed, patient-specific programme for you which usually includes the following stages:
1. First Scan
IVF begins with a scan to establish the state of the lining of your uterus.
2. Hormone injections
If the doctor is happy with the results of the scan, you will begin hormone injections.
These can be self-administered but if the thought of injecting yourself is stressful, ask your partner for help or visit your clinic or pharmacy daily and request that the nurse does them for you.
Typically, there are two sets of injections and the timing of administering them depends on your programme. They are:
3. Follicle scan
After five days of the FSH or FSH/LH injections, the clinic will scan you to determine the number and size of the egg follicles.
Usually the follicles are small at the first scan. If so, you will continue hormone injections and scans until the biggest follicle reaches 18mm or more in size.
4. Ovulation injection
This injection(which can again be self-administered) is usually given at a specific time in the evening.
Egg retrieval will then take place 38 hours after the ovulation injection—about eight hours before the egg is due to be released from the ovary.
5. Aspiration
The clinic will tell you what time to check into the clinic for the egg retrieval.
The procedure is only about 15 to 20 minutes but takes place under strong sedation, so plan to take the day off work.
The doctor will retrieve the eggs and your partner will produce a sperm sample to fertilise the eggs. When I woke up from the procedure, the number of our eggs was written on my hand (clinics know that women need details and their partners are often bad at remembering or communicating them).
This can be an emotional day because your hopes and expectations are linked to the number of eggs and how mature they are.
Ask your partner to drive you home and be available to support you if the news is bad.
6. Embryo fertilisation (naturally or through ICSI)
Once the eggs are retrieved, the laboratory scientist will place them in a dish along with the sperm. The dish is put in an incubator where fertilisation occurs.
If necessary (usually when there is male infertility or when fertilisation has failed to occur or has occurred abnormally in the past), the lab will use ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection) to fertilise the eggs. During ICSI, the lab will select and then inject a single sperm into a single mature egg.
7. Embryo development (the waiting period)
The clinic will decide when to do the embryo transfer (either on day three or five after aspiration). In the period between aspiration and transfer you will phone the clinic every day to get an update on the growth of your embryos.
This can be a very stressful time, especially if the embryos are poor quality. Remember that stress at this point can no longer affect your embryo quality but it can impact negatively on your experience of IVF as well as your emotional preparedness for the embryo transfer and early pregnancy.
If you are feeling overwhelmed, it is best to seek some help.
8. Embryo transfer
The clinic will schedule a time for the embryo transfer. This is a minor procedure, not requiring an anaesthetic.
Before transfer, the clinic will talk about the number and quality of embryos and give you a more accurate estimate of the likely success of the procedure.
Depending on the quality of the embryos, this may be an emotional and challenging day but do try to stay hopeful.
9. Waiting stage
Following the transfer, you will be given medication to maintain a healthy uterine lining which will result in heightened emotions and symptoms that resemble pregnancy.
Symptoms can include; tender breasts, bloating and frequent urination. This is a period of high stress where emotions can vacillate wildly from hope and optimism to despair.
Try to keep busy and not attempt anything too physically or emotionally strenuous during this time.
10. Pregnancy test
This takes place 11 days after the transfer. The clinic will perform a blood test and then communicate the results.
If the test is positive (and I sincerely hope it will be), you will continue on your medicine and return to the clinic for regular scans. Many clinics will continue to care for you through the first trimester following which you can see an obstetrician.
A negative result can be devastating though. It is common to go through all of the stages of grieving: shock, disbelief, numbness, anger, depression and lots of “why” questions. This is normal but friends and family may not understand so it may be a good time to seek external help (especially if you find that you cannot move on).
Hard as it is, it is also important to speak to your doctor about factors that may have contributed to the failure,as well as next steps.
Having a plan can make the difference between depression and continued hope.
1. Cost
IVF is expensive – leading clinics quote between R35 000 and R50 000 per IVF cycle depending on the procedures used (this excludes medication).
Although semi-government hospitals offering IVF may be cheaper, you will still need to budget for it or obtain IVF-specific finance (speak to your clinic about options).
South African medical aids don’t fund IVF but pressure groups continue to lobby them so watch this space.
2. Your emotions
IVF is very stressful. Be sure to set up a good support structure and if necessary seek professional help to cope with it successfully.
3. Readying yourself
Prepare well. Infertility experts understand that a large number of factors contribute to a couple’s success with IVF. Try to make any necessary health, psychological and lifestyle-related changes prior to the treatment to maximise your chances of success.
About the Author: Robyn Wolfson Vorster is a writer, survivor of IVF and a passionate adoption advocate. She is mom to a biological son (7), an adoptive daughter (2) and two step-daughters in their twenties.
Acknowledgements: Medical content derived from Medfem clinic and Vitalab. With grateful thanks to Mandy Rodrigues for the content about how you will feel.
The post What to expect from IVF appeared first on All4Baby.
]]>The post Avos and olive oil may boost success of fertility treatments appeared first on All4Baby.
]]>Dr. Jorge Chavarro and colleagues at the Harvard School of Public Health in the US looked at how intake of different types of fats affected success of IVF treatment in 147 women, mostly in their 30s.
Findings revealed that diets rich in foods typically eaten as part of the Mediterranean diet, including sunflower oil and nuts and seeds, tripled the chances of success for women having the fertility treatment.
In contrast, women who ate mostly saturated fat, found in dairy products and red meat, produced fewer good eggs for use in fertility treatment. High saturated fat intake has already been linked to lower sperm counts.
“The best kinds of food to eat are avocados, which have a lot of monounsaturated fat and low levels of other sorts of fat, and olive oil,” said Chavarro. He said the study was small and more research is needed before clinical advice can be given to women. “While these results are interesting, this is the first time to our knowledge that dietary fats have been linked to treatment outcome in IVF.”
Another new study presented at the same conference found that women who reported drinking five or more cups of coffee a day at the start of IVF treatment reduced their chance of success by 50 percent. The Danish researchers described heavy coffee drinking as being “comparable to the detrimental effect of smoking.”
(AFP Relaxnews)
The post Avos and olive oil may boost success of fertility treatments appeared first on All4Baby.
]]>The post Your guide to adoption in South Africa appeared first on All4Baby.
]]>This might seem obvious but the decisions you make during this stage may determine how successful your adoption process will be. It involves:
Top tips:
The screening process may seem quite daunting but don’t be put off— while time consuming, these tasks are relatively easy for you and your partner to complete. They include:
If everything is in order, your social worker will confirm your eligibility, list you on the national adoption database and start looking for a child for you.
Top tips:
This is often the hardest part of the process. After a period of heightened activity everything goes quiet for a bit and it seems that not much is happening. But nothing could be further from the truth. While you are waiting, your social worker is busy looking for suitable children and your child’s social worker (usually not the same person) is ensuring that the child selected for you has been qualified for adoption.
And finally you get the call—your social worker has a child for you. She will brief you about the child and ask if you want to proceed. If you agree, she will organise for you to meet your child.
Places of Safety handle these meetings differently. We visited our daughter for three days before taking her home. We learnt her routine and preferences and were allowed to feed, bath and change her, put her down for naps and introduce her to our family.
While everyone is understandably anxious to take their child home immediately, this time is essential for bonding and if the child is older or particularly anxious, homecoming may be delayed.
When you take your child home, the Place of Safety will provide you with a “leave of absence” which will authorise you to keep him or her in your home until such time as the legalities are finalised.
The last stage involves completing the legalities through the Children’s court. This includes:
The child then becomes the legal child of the adoptive parents (as if s/he were born to them) and has all of the same rights as a biological child.
Once the legalities are complete, adoptive parents can apply to Home Affairs for a new birth certificate which includes the adoptive parent’s details and the child’s new name. This should take three to six months.
The adoption process may seem lengthy and complex, and to some extent it is. But from experience, I know that one day when you look into your child’s eyes, it will all be worth it.
About the Author: Robyn is a writer, survivor of IVF and a passionate adoption advocate. She is mom to a biological son (7), an adoptive daughter (2) and two step-daughters in their twenties.
The post Your guide to adoption in South Africa appeared first on All4Baby.
]]>The post Is adoption for you? Five questions for infertile couples to consider appeared first on All4Baby.
]]>I adored my son (conceived miraculously from the only embryo we produced in our first attempt at IVF) and my step-daughters,but the thought of not having any more children was devastating.
Here I was, driven, goal-oriented and time urgent (the typical infertility profile) and for the first time, I was without a plan.
It is only now, four years later that I’m grateful there was no plan B. At the time, adoption was not an option for us because my husband wasn’t keen. So, I had to fully grieve the loss of the daughter I had dreamt about, the little girl with my features and my husband’s temperament that I was planning to conceive and birth.
Little did I know that in letting go of her, I was preparing for the daughter I was intended to have—the one we adopted. She is two now and everything I had hoped for, and more.
Adoption was definitely the right option for us. But is it for you? Ask these five questions to find out.
Some people recover quickly from the struggle with infertility. For others, moving on from the failure is a prolonged and painful process (this is often a function of how long you struggled and how devastating the loss was). For the latter group, rushing to adopt can make coming to terms with your new family much harder. Emotional preparedness is essential if you want to avoid post-adoption depression or attachment problems.
My top tips for preparing emotionally are:
If you have a partner, this is one of the first questions that your social worker will ask. You will be co-parenting so you need to be in agreement before you proceed.
The 18 months I waited for my husband to choose adoption were unbelievably hard but in the end,a child’s life and our family’s happiness were at stake so it was well worth the wait.
The adoption process is actually not as long and invasive as some people make it out to be. In fact, it took eleven months for our social worker to screen us and find us a baby, exactly the same amount of time as it took me to conceive my son through IVF and carry him to term.
But at the time, it felt excruciating, especially after all our years of infertility.I therefore encourage woman to be prepared for the process and the wait, and to remember that as a rule of thumb, the more specific you are about the child you want, the longer it is likely to take.
On the plus side though, while the adoption screening is intensive and requires time, honesty and self-disclosure, there are no internal examinations!And, unlike the majority of my IVF attempts, we actually got a child at the end of it.
The media is full of adoption stories involving white, coloured and Indian children but in truth these are quite rare. Because of South Africa’s demographics, the vast majority of adoptable children are black. For this reason, most agencies either have strict criteria for same-race adoptions or a closed list (that is, they will not accept new applicants). So, if you are only willing to adopt a white, coloured or Indian child, it’s best to prepare for a long wait or for disappointment.
However, if you are prepared to adopt trans-racially (or are a black family wanting to adopt) and you are approved, you are certain to get a child, and relatively quickly.
This was the first question I asked my husband when we decided to adopt. He is a wonderful dad and I knew that if he didn’t love our adopted daughter as much as his biological children, I would know, and so would she. Turns out I had no reason to be concerned. He was committed, and from the first moment he held her and she snuggled into his arms,he knew that he would take a bullet for her. In the end, love is a choice and when it comes to children—biological or adopted—it isn’t a hard one.
About the Author: Robyn is a writer, survivor of IVF and a passionate adoption advocate. She is mom to a biological son (7), an adoptive daughter (2) and two step-daughters in their twenties.
The post Is adoption for you? Five questions for infertile couples to consider appeared first on All4Baby.
]]>The post Add Brussel sprouts to your pre-pregnancy diet appeared first on All4Baby.
]]>Research has found that 9 percent of all conceptions take place over the holiday period, making December the most fertile month of the year. For couples wanting a baby, Neema Savvides, a nutritional therapist at the Harley Street Fertility Clinic in the UK, advised adding more Brussels sprouts to your plate, The Daily Mail reports.
“Believe it or not, this green micro-cabbage is a baby-making superfood,” she said, according to BabyWorld.co.uk. “Firstly, they are bursting with folic acid, which is essential for boosting fertility in both men and women. This vitamin-rich source also increases sperm levels and helps line the womb with the right nutrients raising sperm survival chances.”
“Another benefit of this folic-rich food is that it also helps to decrease the risk of miscarriages and birth defects.”
The vegetables are also packed with a phytonutrient called di-indolylmethane, which has been found to help women absorb balanced levels of the hormone estrogen.
Plus since it binds to environmental estrogens, such as pesticides and hormones found in meat and dairy products, it helps rid the body of excess hormones, boosting fertility.
(AFP Relaxnews)
The post Add Brussel sprouts to your pre-pregnancy diet appeared first on All4Baby.
]]>The post A males perspective on infertility appeared first on All4Baby.
]]>However – this day is, for some, a sad and painful reminder that they have not yet been able to father a child or are battling infertility issues.
Did you know that today, one couple out of every six is coping with the challenges of infertility. In approximately 30- 40% of these couples, the infertility is due to a problem on the male side.
Regardless of whether the infertility is due to the male or to their female partner or is unexplained, it is also common for men to experience a range of emotions. These feelings are often unexplained and unexpressed and may lead to behaviors and actions that are misunderstood by others.
Men are sometimes perceived as being unable or unwilling to talk about their feelings and experiences. Pregnancy, childbirth, and parenting are seen as a women’s realm and fertility and medical treatments often focus more specifically on women.
Our society also abounds with images of women as mothers, carers and nurturers much more than those of men as fathers and carers. The voices and thoughts of men are therefore often missed, silent and forgotten.
To fill this void, men who have been through the infertility journey are now starting to write about their experiences and about aspects that they have found to be valuable and supportive.
Men may feel a wide range of emotions, including anger, sadness, confusion, anxiety, humiliation, guilt, embarrassment and shame. Such experiences may be due to feeling one or, indeed, many of the following:
About the Author: Prelox® is a patented blend of Pycnogenol and L-arginine designed to actively treat male infertility. For further information visit www.2tostartafamily.co.za or email [email protected]
The post A males perspective on infertility appeared first on All4Baby.
]]>The post Nutrition for pregnant women: Eating for two does more harm than good! appeared first on All4Baby.
]]>While many pregnant women may use “eating for two’ as an excuse to have huger meals, it’s best to know that overindulging might lead to some complications during pregnancy.
“Pregnant women might be eating for two, but this does not mean you need to eat twice as much as you normally would. Overeating might lead to excessive weight gain for you, it also puts you at risk for other pregnancy complications”, Dr Nicola Rains, a general practitioner at NHC Health Centres.
You may sometimes feel so hungry you could eat two horses. You should certainly be increasing the amount of certain nutrients, but you need about 300 more calories per day, if you are at a healthy weight. This will increase to about 450 more per day in your third trimester.
Dr Rains :“Gaining too much weight during pregnancy affects you physically, increasing pain in your legs and your back. It also increases your risk of developing gestational diabetes, heartburn, high blood pressure and may affect your baby’s weight”.
Gestational diabetes is when your body is not able to make or use insulin properly during pregnancy, leading to an increase in blood sugar levels. This type of diabetes can affect the developing baby during pregnancy as well as during delivery and for a short while thereafter.
Heartburn also becomes an issue, more especially if you’re further along your pregnancy. The baby crowds out the digestive tract and puts more pressure on your intestines and stomach. Eating more than normal only worsens the heartburn and indigestion.
Absorbing too many calories also affects your baby’s weight. When you gain too much weight, it’s likely that you will give birth to a larger baby. This can result in the need for an assisted vaginal delivery or a higher rate of caesarean section when there is disproportion and prolonged labour and/or foetal distress.
Sue Scharf, dietician at NHC :“Eating healthy is even more important when you’re pregnant, because what you put in your body feeds both you and your baby. Your baby is dependent on you for getting enough nutrition.”
“Remember that while pregnant, your baby’s health and growth are related to what you eat. When you are tempted to help yourself to another place of rice and chicken, remember that you are eating for a baby and not a full-size adult. It is all about quality over quantity” says Dr Rains.
The post Nutrition for pregnant women: Eating for two does more harm than good! appeared first on All4Baby.
]]>The post Infertility lingo explained! appeared first on All4Baby.
]]>Unfortunately, this means that a couple is unable to achieve natural conception at all. Ulterior conception methods, such as in vitro fertilisation (IVF) usually follows a permanent infertility diagnosis.
The following conditions may cause permanent infertility;
This diagnosis is given to couples who struggle to fall pregnant after already having conceived a child. Secondary infertility is usually a tough pill to swallow after a previous uncomplicated conception and pregnancy.
The causes of secondary infertility are usually the same as primary infertility. These issues have just developed after you have had your first child.
A Sub-infertility diagnosis is given to couples who are less fertile than the average couple. Being diagnosed with sub-fertility doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to conceive, it just means that the road to conception will be a little longer (and harder) for you.
It’s a common misconception that fertility problems lie only with the woman. But, research shows that 30% of the time, it’s actually the man that is the problem. Another 30% is attributed to the woman’s inability to fall pregnant, while the remaining 40% goes to a combination of both the woman and man having fertility problems.
The post Infertility lingo explained! appeared first on All4Baby.
]]>The post Aspirin could help you fall pregnant! appeared first on All4Baby.
]]>Researchers at the National Institute of Health in the US think this might be due to an increase of blood flow to the womb when taking aspirin.
While aspirin might improve your chances of falling pregnant, scientists saw no change in the rate of miscarriages during the study, leading them to warn that aspirin does little to stop a miscarriage from taking place.
Doctors have been known to prescribe low doses of aspirin to women who have experienced a miscarriage and want to try again for another baby, but no research has been conducted to establish whether the ubiquitous drug truly has any influence.
In a study of over 1000 women who had experienced pregnancy loss, researchers divided the sample into two groups – one which would receive a daily dose of aspirin and the other which would receive a placebo over a period of six months while they tried to conceive.
These were women who had lost a baby before they were four-and-a-half months pregnant in the past year.
No difference between the pregnancy loss rates of those who had the placebo and those who had received the daily aspirin, however, a higher rate of conception was noted between those who took the aspirin (78 percent) versus the placebo (66 percent).
Of the placebo group 66 percent became pregnant and 53 percent of those women had a live birth.
The scientists hope to further their research by studying the possibility of aspirin helping the other sub-groups in the study to conceive.
The findings can be found in The Lancet.
The post Aspirin could help you fall pregnant! appeared first on All4Baby.
]]>