Australia IVF - In Vitro Fertilisation - Infertility Treatments Information

According to UNSW researchers, In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is three to four times less cost-effective in women aged 40 years and over.

The paper, which is the first comprehensive costing study on the topic in Australia, has just been published in the electronic version of the Medical Journal of Australia (MJA).

“Debate on IVF funding has been hindered by a lack of economic studies of IVF treatments and outcomes in Australia,” said the lead author, Ms Georgina Chambers, researcher in the School of Women’s and Children’s Health.

The report, which is co-authored by Dr Tessa Ho, from the School of Public Health and Community Medicine and Dr Elizabeth Sullivan from the School of Women’s and Children’s Health, shows that the direct health care cost of non-donor IVF is $32 903 on average for each live birth. This cost rises to $182 794 for women aged 42 years and over.

The research found average costs in Australia for each IVF cycle using fresh or frozen embryos are similar to estimates from the UK and Europe, but are much less than US estimates.

“However age is not the only determinant of treatment success - other factors such as the duration of infertility are important. In making policy decisions, we need to consider community values, ethical practice and clinical factors, as well as economic costs,” said the authors.

UNSW researchers have announced promising developments in IVF. According to a report commissioned  by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), the number of babies born using Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) has almost tripled in the past ten years, with the total number of babies born increasing by 8.6 percent between 2002 and 2003, .

The report, Assisted Reproduction Technology in Australia and New Zealand 2003, conducted by the Perinatal Statistics Unit (NPSU) at UNSW, also shows the proportion of multiple pregnancies has decreased leading to fewer babies being born prematurely or with a low birth weight.

The report finds better outcomes due to a number of factors including the use of fresh embryos and women embarking on ART at a younger age.

Almost one in four (23.7 percent) of embryo transfer cycles where women used their own fresh embryos resulted in the successful delivery of at least one live baby, while the figure for women who used their own frozen embryo was 15.2 percent.

“When we look at the ages of women who used their own fresh embryos, women aged 25-29 years achieved more successful outcomes, with 35.1 percent of embryo transfer cycles achieving live delivery, while women aged 40-44 years had a success rate of 9.5 percent,” said Professor Michael Chapman, head of the School of Women’s and Children’s Health.

The average age of women undergoing ART treatment in 2003 was 35.2 years.

We just launch a new Forum for Australia IVF Discussion and other infertility treatments. This new IVF Message Boards currently based on these topics:
General IVF Discussions
IVF Success Stories
Negative Results
Alternative Infertility Treatments
General Parenting
and IVF International

If you have any enquiry or want to ask opinion from other user , this IVF message  board is the best media to use. And If you have any other topics you want to suggest to be added in this Forum, please post it in this page as well.

The normal values for semen test result:

Volume: >2.0ml
Concentration: >20 million/ml
Total Cells: >40 million
Motility: ~50%
Normal Forms: >14%
 
If one or more parameters of the test for semen results is not within the normal value, it is recommended to repeat the test several weeks later. Sperm is continually produced in the testes. Its production is affected by health such as fever, nutrition, stress level and other factors, and it takes about 2  months until the sperm matures. For this reason, a single poor sperm test may not be a true indication of the man’s fertility.

Additional factors that may appear on your sperm tests include:
-Semen Viscosity - Coagulated sperm should liquefy within an hour. If it does not, sometimes IUI will solve the problem.
-White & red blood cell counts - If these are abnormally high, antibiotics may be recommended.
-Sperm Agglutination - Sperm that clump together. This may be a sign of anti sperm anti bodies - when your own body mistakes your sperm as an external organism. Sperm agglutination can also be caused by infection.

What is Ovidrel used for?

Ovidrel belongs to a family of hormones known as gonadotrophins, which are involved in the normal control of reproduction.

the active substance of ovidrel is choriogonadotropin alfa that is produced in mammalian cells modified by recombinant DNA technology.

Ovidrel is used in women undergoing assisted reproductive techniques such as IVF ( In vitro Fertilisation). Ovidrel is used to ripen (mature) follicles that contain eggs. Ovidrel is also used in women who do not produce eggs, or who produce too few eggs. It is used to trigger the release of eggs, after other medicines have been used to develop the follicles.

This table below summarises the organs of the males reproductive system.

Read the rest of this entry »

Problem in conceiving a baby comes as a surprise to some couples. Many of them have no medical history to suggest a infertility problem, and  in fact,  they have spent years trying to prevent pregnancy. They assume that once birth control is stopped, conception will soon follow without any problem. While this is true for many couples, others find out that having a baby is not as simple as they expected.

up to 90% Infertility problem can be treated using conventional therapies, such as surgery, or medication . these treatment success rates are continually improving.

Potential male factors are described throughout this section of the site. Whatever are the cause, solving the problem with infertility is never easy. Many men feel robbed of their virility when they discover a fertility problem, and some struggle with feelings of poor self-esteem. These responses are normal. The key to overcoming them is a support by the wife. Whether difficulty conceiving is related to male factors, female factors, or both, infertility is a couple’s shared challenge.

Here are some of the causes of infertility in men, which related  to sperm:

• Sperm Creation
• Sperm Quality        

Androgen: Hormone that stimulates the activity of the accessory male sex organs and encourages development of male sex characteristics. Also produced in low quantities in females.

ART - Assisted reproductive Techniques: ART - Assisted reproductive Techniques

Artificial Insemination (AI): The depositing of sperm in the vagina near the cervix or directly into the uterus, with the use of a catheter instead of by sexual intercourse. This technique is used to overcome sexual performance problems, to avoid sperm-mucus interaction problems, to maximise the potential of poor semen, and for using donor sperm.

Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART): A variety of procedures used to bring about conception without sexual intercourse, including IVF, and GIFT.

Blastocyst transfer: A recent advance in infertility treatment, in which embryos develop for 4 or 5 days (until they reach blastocyst stage), rather than the usual 2 or 3 days in IVF.

Corpus luteum: A structure that forms at the site of an ovarian follicle after it releases an egg. The corpus luteum releases estrogen and progesterone, two hormones necessary for maintaining a pregnancy. If pregnancy occurs, the corpus luteum functions for five or six months. If pregnancy does not occur, it stops functioning.

Cryopreservation: Storage of organs or tissues at very low temperatures. Embryos that are not used in an ART cycle can be cryopreserved for future use.
Read the rest of this entry »

Causes of infertility can be related to the female or male.
Male Infertility
Male Infertility results from an ability to produce sufficient motile sperm for fertilization. If there are no sperm (azoospermia) or very few (oligospermia) then the couple will usually need to use Artificial Insemination or a technique like ICSI (Intracytoplasmic sperm injection) to conceive. If the sperm have defective tails or some other major abnormality then natural conception will be impossible. Most severe problems are caused by abnormal genes or chromosomes.
 

Female Infertility
Total female infertility results from either tubal damage or some condition (usually genetic or chromosomal) that permanently inhibits ovulation. There could be an absence of eggs or some other developmental defect. however,  however if there is difficulty getting pregnant but no tubal damage and there are cycles of some sort, whether long or irregular or low in mucus or they don’t match temperature charts or you can’t detect ovulation with home kits, it is very likely that the problem can be addressed by changes in lifestyle.

Causes of Infertility

• Immunological Infertility
• Hormonal Infertility
• Unexplained Infertility
• Tubal Ligation
• Male Causes

-Ovulation Induction

Ovulation Induction involves the administration of either oral or injectable fertility medication, to either establish ovulation , where a woman otherwise does not ovulate to improve the ovulation process or convert the usually unifollicular, monthly ovulation process into a polyfollicular process, to enhance conception chances. Whatever the indication for ovulation induction treatment, a conversion to a polyfollicular response will always take place. The woman has a greater chance of getting pregnant, but, consequently, any form of ovulation induction will be characterized by an increased risk of multiple births.

-Intrauterine Insemination (IUI) | Artificial Insemination

IUI  is usually recommended to accompany ovulation induction cycles to increase pregnancy chances. When an IUI is performed, the partner’s semen, after its seminal plasma has been washed off is directly injected into the uterus. IUIs empirically improve pregnancy rates over regular intercourse, when male infertility is a factor. IUI also improve pregnancy rates if cervical factor infertility is present (i.e. the cervical mucus inactivates semen motility) and in the presence of mildly abnormal semen, which can constitute a case of general male infertility .

-Donor Insemination

Artificial insemination is also performed through donor insemination, which involves the same process as described for IUI, except that the semen sample comes from a donor. 
 

-Gynecoradiology

Gynecoradiology is a term of the use of xray equipment to diagnose and treat causes of infertility.  Most other fertility centres refer patients to radiology departments