Infertility Treatment (गर्भधारण में रुकावट का उपचार) by IVF (In Vitro Fertilization) or ‘Test Tube Baby’ Treatment

                                3 Stages of IVF: 

1. Extraction of egg, 2. Fertilization with sperm, 3. Implant of embryo in uterus   

Infertility Treatment (गर्भधारण में रुकावट का उपचार) by IVF (In Vitro Fertilization) or ‘Test Tube Baby’ Treatment

© Harish Jharia

Why do we want to have children? 

A man and a woman marry to launch a family that consists of husband, wife and children. These are the three essential ingredients, in absence of any one of them, a family is considered incomplete. Mere presence of children makes a family colorful, charming, exciting and enchanting. A child carries our legacy, linage and genetic generations. 

How and when children are born:

We all know the process of reproduction out of which children are born in our families. Nevertheless, the age of the parents is the most crucial factor that decides the capability of the mother and father to reproduce a child.  The most suitable and fertile age for women is between 18 to 27 years. After the age of 27 her fertility starts declining and ends with the menopause somewhere around 50 years.   Similarly, the fertility in men is considered to be at its peak between 18 to 35 years of age that depletes thereafter until they reach the stage of male-menopause approximately at 55-60 years. 

Therefore, it is obviously clear that the youngsters should plan their marriage and bear children as long as the women is well within the age bracket of 18 to 27 and the men within 18 to 35 year slot.  Beyond the above age brackets, not only fertility of parents depletes, even there are possibilities of birth defects like 'Down Syndrome' in the children born to aged parents. 

What can be done if motherhood is not practicable in younger age? 

Postponement of motherhood has been made possible by freezing the prospective mother’s eggs, well in advance in her 20s, under controlled laboratory conditions. Harvesting of eggs enables young women to fulfill their professional and corporate commitments and become mothers at a later age and at their convenience.  

What factors are responsible for depleted fertility of women? 

After the age of approximately around 27, the fertility of women starts depleting as the rate of production and quality of eggs reduces, successively, with their biological age. Many women develop blockage in their Fallopian tubes. Fallopian tubes are conduit pipes that carry eggs, every month, from the two ovaries to the uterus and help the process of bearing a child. But, in case of blocked Fallopian tubes the eggs are not able to reach the uterus and the woman is rendered unable to bear a child. 

How to bear a child after crossing the most fertile age slot:

As discussed in the preceding paragraphs, the fertility of a woman is at its peak within the age slot of 18 to 27. After that age, motherhood becomes difficult (गर्भधारण में रुकावट) for women who marry in their 30s. In such cases most of the women who suffer from infertility problems opt for IVF (In Vitro Fertilization) treatment. 

What is IVF (In Vitro Fertilization) treatment? 

The term 'In Vitro', is a Latin word that means "Within the glass".  This treatment is more popularly known as ‘test tube baby’ treatment.  In the IVF (In Vitro Fertilization) treatment, mother’s eggs are extracted from ovaries and fertilized with sperm outside her body in glass containers such as petri dishes, under controlled environmental conditions in biological laboratories. The fertilized egg that eventually develops into an embryo is then transferred to   mother’s uterus. 

Selection, preparation, Fertilization of Eggs and Embryo culture:

The most healthy and suitable eggs out of the extracted eggs from the mother’s ovaries are carefully selected for fertilization in the laboratory. These selected eggs are then thoroughly cleaned of the surrounding unwanted cells and placed in petri dishes for fertilization with healthy and active sperms. 

The carefully selected eggs and sperms are then incubated together at a ratio of about 1:75000 in the culture media for duration of about 18 hours. Generally, in most of the cases, the egg will be fertilized in 18 hours and the fertilized egg will show up symptoms of the same.  The fertilized egg is then passed on to a special growth medium and left there for a period of about 48 hours until the egg develops into six to eight cells embryos.

Implant of embryo in the uterus:

Once the embryos are fully fertilized, the prospective mother will be called to the IVF facility and the doctors will transfer one or more embryos into her uterus. This procedure of implant is a bit quicker and easier than the complicated retrieval of egg from ovaries. The doctor will insert a catheter through her cervix and into the uterus, where the embryos are eventually implanted. 

Most of the IVF experts recommend implanting more than one embryo at a time to increase the chances of pregnancy. Nevertheless, multiple embryo implants may result into multiple pregnancies, delivering twins or more.  After the implant, the prospective mother would be required to stay in bed for four to six hours. 

About two weeks after the embryo implant, the doctors would preferably perform a pregnancy test on the mother for ensuring the success of the IVF treatment 


Bollywood celebrities opted for IVF (In Vitro Fertilization) rather than remaining childless and declared the same to the world:

Many celebrities in the world have opted for IVF (In Vitro Fertilization) rather than remaining childless throughout their lives. Most of them have preferred to give wide publicity of the same to encourage people of the world to go for IVF (In Vitro Fertilization) and have their own children, rather than being childless couples. 

Among Indian film celebrities, most of the film stars who married late could not bear children. Nevertheless, some of them have opted for IVF (In Vitro Fertilization) recently and become proud parents. The world famous Bollywood actor and producer Amir khan and the famous director, choreographer and actor Farah Khan are the two celebrities who have proudly declared that they have recently got children out of IVF (In Vitro Fertilization).

The most celebrated couple Aamir Khan and wife Kiran Rao have proudly announced to the world about the arrival of their baby boy, ‘Azad’ by IVF and through a surrogate mother; whereas, another well-known celebrity Farah Khan has become mother of triplets named Czar, Diva and Anya through IVF (In Vitro Fertilization).

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Watch YouTube Video of IVF (In Vitro Fertilization) animation
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Disclaimer:
This article is written based on my personal observations and on the information collected from the media. My intention for publishing the same is to provide healthy reading and intellectual entertainment and not for educating the visitors. No literature or authentic books have been referred for writing the contents of this article. The visitors are advised not to refer the contents of this article for any research or testimony on professional or legal purposes. The visitors are further advised to consult relevant experts before adapting any information from this article. The author or the website are not responsible for any errors, mistakes, or omissions there in.
- Harish Jharia
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