Hormonal fertility drugs

Hormonal fertility drugs can help treat infertility by helping an egg mature and be released from an ovary. This makes it possible for the egg to be fertilised inside the body.

FSH (follicle-stimulating hormone) stimulates eggs to mature in the ovaries. LH (luteinising hormone) stimulates ovulation, the release of an egg from an ovary.

Once released, the egg may be fertilised by a sperm inside the body, allowing pregnancy to occur without laboratory fertilisation. The treatment makes fertilisation possible, but does not guarantee it.

In vitro fertilisation

In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is a treatment in which an egg is fertilised by a sperm in a laboratory rather than inside the body. The resulting embryo is then placed in the mother’s uterus, where it may implant and develop.

Stages of IVF

1. The mother is given the hormones FSH and LH, which stimulate the maturation of several eggs.
2. The eggs are collected from the mother and fertilised with sperm from the father in the laboratory.
3. The fertilised eggs divide and develop into embryos. When the embryos are tiny balls of cells, one or two are placed into the mother’s uterus.
4. An embryo may implant in the lining of the uterus and continue to develop. Implantation is not guaranteed.

Outcomes and risks of fertility treatment

Fertility treatment can give a woman the chance to have a baby of her own. However, success rates are not high, so treatment does not guarantee that she will have a baby.

Treatment can also be physically and emotionally stressful. A person may have to cope with the physical demands of treatment as well as uncertainty about whether it will succeed.

Multiple births

A multiple birth is the birth of more than one baby from a pregnancy, such as twins. Fertility treatment can lead to a multiple pregnancy if more than one egg is fertilised, or if more than one transferred embryo develops. Multiple births pose health risks to both the mother and the babies.