This one wild and precious life – How we tackle infertility

Imagine you are about to embark on one of the most important journeys of your life.
Soon you will become a parent to new life, begin a new chapter of your lives as a family, and fulfil your dreams of being the parent to a beautiful baby. Now imagine this is only possible with the assistance of fertility specialists and medical procedures. Does that make it any less magical? There is still a stigma about IVF, or other artificially assisted ways to start a family. I see it often in my clients who come seeking help with fertility. “I'm not going down that path”, “My husband’s not open to it”, that kind of thing. There is a general feeling that if it’s supposed to happen it will but I’ve come to feel there’s more to it than that. Both physically and philosophically.

Take my clients for instance.  Most of them believed it would easy to conceive into their 30’s. They never foresaw a problem, never had the right partner till then, never felt they could take a break from their careers. Most of them have been on the pill for over 10 years and had no idea what the state of their natural period was. When they start trying mid 30’s, and it doesn’t happen straight away, panic sets in with every passing month, then regret at not trying to conceive earlier. Yet, many women will have no trouble falling pregnant in their 30’s, and even 40’s, but more and more, a good deal of them will. We have the highest average age for first pregnancies in the world: 30. Compared to most of Europe: 27 and the US: 26. Our rates of infertility are rising each year with at least 15% of couples having trouble getting pregnant.

Although leaving pregnancy to later in life is one reason, there are many reasons for rising infertility. Increased reproductive problems like endometriosis, polycystic ovarian syndrome, low sperm count, poor sperm quality, undiagnosed thyroid issues, diabetes, eating disorders, uterine fibroids, and sexually transmitted diseases. Add to that more broad issues such as stress and its effect on hormonal health and you can see there are multiple things to consider. I’m very passionate about supporting sperm and hormonal health as the crux of any fertility treatment.

Naturopathic medicine has long history of treating infertility.
The reproductive system finds many a solution in the field of nutrition, specific supplementation, herbal medicine and lifestyle modifications. I see so many successes and I’m honoured beyond words to be able to help couples on their journey to becoming parents. But for some couples natural medicine is not enough on its own.
In orthodox medicine, treatments for infertility are relatively new. The first child born through IVF arrived in 1978. Four decades on, a lot has changed, but there is still so much we don’t know, and the success rates for IVF and other techniques are disappointingly low. Heartbreakingly low. My advice to those who have been trying without success for more than a year is to start gaining information. You can do this through your G.P. Sperm counts and morphology, ovarian reserves, fallopian tube health, and hormone testing. Gather all the information you can about you and your partner’s health (literally get copies of all results too), because information is power. It’s proactive and it gives you choices. Also, if you aren’t already seeing someone, find a complementary health practitioner with experience in fertility and assisted reproductive technologies. There are many complementary techniques that can increase your chances of success.  

Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) refers to the various methods of achieving pregnancy, medically rather than naturally. They include:
IVF - In vitro fertilisation involves the taking of hormonal drugs to stimulate the production of eggs from the ovary. Those eggs are then harvested and put together with collected sperm. The eggs that are fertilised by the sperm will be matured in the lab for a few more days before the best one is transferred into the uterus (the others will usually be frozen, for later use if needed).
ICSI - Intracytoplasmic sperm injection is the same process as IVF with a variation. As the name suggests a single sperm is actually injected into each mature egg. This process is necessary where there is poor sperm quality.
Assisted hatching  - Sometimes used in conjunction with IVF or ICSI.  After fertilisation and just before transfer back into the uterus, a small hole is created in the embryo to improve success rates.
Blastocyte culture - Occasionally used in conjunction with IVF and ICSI, this refers to keeping the embryo in the lab for longer than usual till the blastocyte formation stage (usually at days 5-8 after fertilisation). This allows the embyologist to make an even better choice of embryo to transfer into the womb. In theory this should increase success rates but of course even this is no match for the body’s own selection process.
Surgical sperm recovery - When there is no sperm in a man’s ejaculate, it can often be surgically retrieved from the testes or epididymis. It will then be used in either ICSI or IVF. 
These are the main techniques used in NZ and Australia. Ovulation stimulation and intrauterine insemination are less invasive techniques sometimes tried before one undertakes the interventions explained above.  

For some, ART's are the best or only way to start a family. I'd love to support you on your journey to a happy ending.