Is IVF or ICSI the Right Fertility Treatment for Me?
Many people look forward to starting a family when the time feels right. However, there are situations where we need to consider fertility treatment options
Seeking professional guidance can be overwhelming because you have to consider questions like ‘Where do we start looking?’, ‘Who do we talk to?’, ‘What facility should we visit?’ and so on. The HFEA website is a good source of information when seeking treatment: HFEA/.
At Bridge Clinic London, we take your needs seriously and take our time to review your medical history to ensure that we can help you decide on the treatment options that will give you the best chance of achieving your dream… of having a family.
We understand that every patient is unique, so we ensure that any treatment is tailored to your needs. We will involve you in all the decision-making as we know how important it is to be fully informed and, most importantly, for you to understand each step of your treatment journey with us.
After a heterosexual couple has unprotected sexual intercourse at least thrice a week for one year without conceiving, we recommend that they speak with their GP or a fertility specialist. At Bridge Clinic London, we would take your and your partner’s medical history, undertake some tests such as a baseline scan, sperm analysis and a blood test and recommend what course of treatment is best for you.
About 30% of infertility is due to male problems, 30% female and 30% unexplained.
Treatment options for heterosexual couplesranges from basic interventions like lifestyle modifications such as weight loss, understanding the signs of ovulation, and mapping out the best time to have sexual intercourse with your partner to more specialised care that involves assisted reproductive technology. This includes procedures like Intrauterine Insemination (IUI), which is less invasive than interventions such as In vitro fertilisation (IVF), where eggs are inseminated with sperm in the laboratory by incubating eggs and sperm together (IVF) or using intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) where a sperm is injected into each egg with a fine needle.
IVF is the only treatment option when one or both fallopian tubes are blocked, which means the sperm cannot reach the egg to fertilise it. Causes include previous abdominal/pelvic surgery, infections in the pelvis, including Pelvic Inflammatory Diseases (PID)commonly caused by sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and pelvic tuberculosis.
IVF is also often recommended for women who have endometriosis – when tissue that normally lines the womb grows outside your womb. Sadly, endometriosis cannot be prevented.
We also recommend IVF to heterosexual couples with unexplained infertility and same-sex couples or single women using donor sperm if intrauterine insemination is not an option for them.
ICSI This is the most common and effective treatment for male infertility. ICSI is therefore recommended in cases of very low sperm count or abnormally shaped (poor morphology) sperm or where there is a high proportion of sperm cells that do not move normally (low motility). It is a suitable treatment option in couples who previously had IVF, and none or very few of the eggs were fertilised. In individuals whose sperm were surgically collected from the testicles or epididymis (a narrow tube inside the scrotum where sperm are stored and matured) – for example, because you have had a vasectomy. Overall, ICSI is an effective treatment for men with infertility.