• Question: Hi! :) What are the other alternatives to IVF?

    Asked by yasmin123 to Vicki, Greg, Claire on 24 Jun 2010 in Categories: . This question was also asked by jorgaliee.
    • Photo: Vicki Onions

      Vicki Onions answered on 24 Jun 2010:

      Hi yasmin
      I guess the main alternative is adoption. I was then going to say that depending on the cause of infertility, if its female infertility then donor eggs or a surrogate could be used and if its male then dononr sperm….but then i realised both those options need IVF – DOH!!
      The other alternative….and it sounds daft and insensitive…but it may be to relax! Sometimes when couples (especially women) want children really really badly and its not happening for them, they get stressed and pressured and anxious about it – understandably so – but that is the worst thing for the reproductive system (especially the female one – we seem more under the influence of emotion!). I have heard loads of accounts of people who start, either the adoption process or the IVF process, and then fall preganany spontaneously. This is down to the fact that the pressure has gone, there is now something else in place to help them have a child and so they stop worrying about it. Stress hormones go down, reproductive system breathes a sigh of relief and agrees to play ball. Sounds silly and a bit patronising i guess, but it happens!

    • Photo: Greg FitzHarris

      Greg FitzHarris answered on 24 Jun 2010:

      well, if we’re talking about a cuple who are infertile, have tried the less demanding fertility treatments and are left with just ivf as the remaining ‘medical’ option… i guess its between that and adoption.

      i think i rambled on about this in another answer… the thing is that whereas some couples are very happy to adopt, some others really want to have their ‘own’ child. Having not been in that situation myself, i cant really comment… but i can imagine that quite a few people feel like that. Even so, I think its also true that there arent enough babies put up for adoption to ‘go round’ all the infertile coupes… so, currently, bioth adoption and ivf have important roles to play…

    • Photo: Claire O'Donnell

      Claire O'Donnell answered on 24 Jun 2010:

      Hello Yasmin, it depends what’s wrong If the woman has got blocked fallopian tubes nothing really but if she isn’t producing many eggs then she can take some drugs to stimulate her ovaries and see if she can conceive naturally. If it’s a problem with sperm then the only other thing is donor insemination, as long as teh woman doesn’t have a fertility problem this doesn’t need IVF
      There’s always adoption though:)

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