Everything you need to know about fertility treatment

We know that choosing the right clinic for your fertility treatment can be a difficult decision. We understand that you are putting a huge amount of trust in our ability to get you pregnant. We also feel the weight of that responsibility when you choose us to take care of you.

From your first free telephone consultation with us you will speak to a medical doctor. We believe that by taking the time in that first appointment to take a detailed medical history for both partners, we will get the best picture of your fertility outcome.

Your next free consultation will be with one of our Fertility Specialists. They will give you a fertility diagnosis and suggest a treatment plan. The terms used in that consultation may cause you some anxiety and you may even feel a bit confused. That is totally normal and it is perfectly OK to have questions after that consultation when you have digested the information presented to you. We are here to hold your hand throughout the process.

Today, I want to give a summary about fertility treatments that I may suggest and explain what you need to know about them.

What is fertility treatment?

Infertility occurs when a couple fails to achieve a pregnancy after 12 months if the female partner is under 35. The diagnosis comes earlier for women over 35 as they should seek medical help if no pregnancy occurs after 6 months. Couples who have also suffered recurrent miscarriage should also seek medical help as there are many factors to investigate.

Fertility treatment is a set of high or low complexity medical techniques that are designed to achieve pregnancy and most importantly carry the baby to term. When we speak of high or low complexity, we are referring to the level of complexity of the procedures.

Low complexity treatments

It is important that you know that less complex treatments don’t have the same success rate as more complex ones. This is because we are not directly intervening with the fertilization process. They are simpler and more natural processes where the egg and sperm meet without the manipulation in a controlled environment like the laboratory.

Ovulation Induction

This involves medication that helps the follicles in your ovaries to grow. Often this technique is successful in achieving a pregnancy when there is an ovulation problem. You just take 1 to 3 pills, as directed by your physician for 5 days at the beginning of the menstrual period. This treatment is generally used in combination with artificial insemination or timed intercourse. The main objective of this technique is to release the eggs just at the time artificial insemination or directed intercourse is planned, this increases the chances of achieving a pregnancy.

Scheduled intercourse

As the name suggests, in this technique we monitor the development of your ovulation, in order to determine the right time when you should have intercourse with your partner. This increases the chance of achieving pregnancy naturally. We will indicate the day that you will have the best chance of success. This technique is ideal for young couples with an ovulation problem. The success of timed intercourse depends on open fallopian tubes, a healthy uterus and normal sperm.  

Artificial Insemination or IUI

Interuterine Insemenination (IUI) is a fairly simple and painless technique that only takes 5 minutes! During this, we use a soft catheter to introduce your partner's semen directly into your uterus just at the moment you are ovulating. To find out the appropriate day to perform the procedure, we will do some hormonal blood tests and an ultrasound scan. We recommend this for women under 40 years of age, if there is a decrease in the number of sperm or in cases of unexplained infertility.

High complexity treatments

These treatments are carried out in a laboratory, which must comply with very specific conditions that guarantee the sanitation, temperature and other ideal characteristics to handle the samples. These procedures increase your chances of achieving a pregnancy as they are more effective. We recommend these techniques to couples who have already undergone low complexity treatments with no success. I am one of those who thinks that two failed artificial insemination attempts or any other low-complexity treatment are enough to resort to more complex treatments that increase the chances of achieving a live birth. I recommend these techniques to all couples who have already tried other methods.

In Vitro Fertilization (IVF)

This procedure involves medication to stimulate your ovaries to produce more follicles. We then need to retrieve your eggs from those follicles with a fine catheter through the vaginal wall. The procedure only takes about 15 mins and is carried out under light sedation. Those eggs are then kept in our laboratory, here the mature eggs are placed in a dish with your partners sperm and left for fertilization to occur. Once fertilization has occurred we then select the best quality of embryo to transfer back to your uterus for implantation to take place and hopefully a successful pregnancy.

Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI)

This technique is where we inject the egg with your partners sperm. The embryo is then placed in an incubator until it is ready to be transferred to the uterus. This procedure greatly increases a couples chance of success, especially if the sperm has motility issues.

At Panama fertility we design the right strategy for you, based on an accurate diagnosis that allows us to get the most out of each of the procedures we offer you. We design an action plan that will allow us to fulfill your dream of becoming parents.