If you’re thinking about sperm donation and artificial information, you should learn what a sperm donor does!
This info is from a terrific book called A Baby at Last! The Couple’s Complete Guide to Getting Pregnant – From Cutting-Edge Treatments to Commonsense Wisdom.
“The frequency of artificial insemination of donor sperm has changed dramatically, thanks to the introduction of ICSI (intrauterine insemination),” write the authors of A Baby at Last! “Even when a man has a very low sperm count or low motility, or no sperm at all in the ejaculate, doctors can isolate a single sperm from the ejaculate or retrieve sperm from the testicles to inject directly into an egg.”
My husband calls this procedure “cracking a nut.” In medical circles, they call it TESE or testicular sperm extraction. But, if you don’t want to go that far in search of sperm – surgery to extract a single sperm – you might want to look for a sperm donor at a sperm bank instead.
The following info on sperm donors and sperm banks is from A Baby at Last! The Couple’s Complete Guide to Getting Pregnant–from Cutting-Edge Treatments to Commonsense Wisdom – a terrific source of information on getting pregnant, whether or not you’re coping with infertility.Read More »How Sperm Donation for Artificial Insemination Works
Not getting pregnant brings up different emotional issues of infertility for men and women. Here, a fertility specialist discusses how men and women process infertility issues differently, and offers tips for dealing with the “trying to conceive” process.
First, here are a few emotions that not getting pregnant often triggers:
“When you can’t get pregnant, you swim in a mix of emotions,” write Julie Vargo and Maureen Regan in A Few Good Eggs. “You feel insecure (how the hell did this happen to me?), inferior (if I can’t have a baby, I must not be enough of a woman), scared (how am I going to get out of this mess?), mad (how the hell did this happen to me?), and frustrated (what does that mean?).”
Insecurity, inferiority, fear, anger, and frustration are commonly felt by both men and women who are dealing with the emotional issues of infertility. Reading books like A Few Good Eggs can help couples cope. And, here is embryologist Stacie Hill’s advice on understanding how infertility affects men and women differently….Read More »Not Getting Pregnant? Understand the Emotional Issues of Infertility
“Assisted reproductive technology has helped many childless couples to become parents,” writes Dr Miriam Stoppard in Conception, Pregnancy & Birth. “Originally in vitro fertilization (IVF) was the only form, but now there are a number of techniques aimed at helping a couple conceive and give birth to a healthy child. The rewards are wonderful, but the emotional costs can be high. Any couple considering assisted reproductive technology needs expert support.”
Many fertility clinics won’t provide treatments or assisted reproductive technology unless the couple has talked to a counselor or psychologist (and that can cost extra, depending on the type of infertility treatment). For more information on getting pregnant and healthy pregnancies, click Conception, Pregnancy & Birth: The Childbirth Bible for Today’s Parents
Read More »What is Assisted Reproductive Technology? Definitions of 8 Infertility Treatments
“Many people have focused on the role of assisted reproductive technologies in multiples and have not fully appreciated that fertility drugs alone are responsible for one out of every five multiple births,” said Alan R. Fleischman, M.D., medical director of the March of Dimes. “Controlled ovarian hyperstimulation drugs are widely prescribed, and some health care professionals — and their patients — are not aware of the serious risks of fertility drugs to women and their babies. There is a very high possibility of multi-fetal pregnancy resulting from use of these drugs, and that brings a high risk of prematurity and lifelong health problems for the babies as a consequence.”
This doesn’t mean we should avoid fertility treatments or assisted reproductive technologies, but it is something to be aware of! Talk to your fertility specialist for specific info that relates to you and your chances of getting pregnant. Click Creating Life Against the Odds: The Journey from Infertility to Parenthood to learn how one obstetrician/gynecologist used assisted reproductive technologies to get pregnant. And, read on for the full press release from the March of Dimes…Read More »How Fertility Treatments and Drugs Contribute to Multiple Births