Overcome Fertility Problems with Assisted Reproduction Techniques (ART)
Singapore couples are finding new possibilities for parenthood through assisted reproduction techniques. More than 600 babies have been born through assisted reproduction techniques (ART) at the Thomson Fertility Centre (TFC) in Singapore, enabling couples with fertility problems to fulfill their deep desire become parents.
TFC made world news when it made possible the world’s first birth from frozen eggs and frozen testicular sperm, a break-through offering new possibilities for in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment.
What is IVF? IVF is simply the uniting of egg and sperm in vitro (in the lab). Subsequently, the embryos are transferred into the uterus through the cervix and the pregnancy is allowed to begin. The process is done in conjunction with induced ovulation, monitoring of hormone levels and follicular scanning through ultrasound.
The medical director of TFC, Dr Cheng Li Cheng, has been involved with IVF treatment for 15 years, including managing the IVF unit at King’s College Hospital, London, where he saw hundreds of women annually, despite a five-year waiting list just to get into the program.
TFC was established by Thomson Medical Centre in 1987, transferring medical technology and specialists from the Assisted Conception Unit at King’s College Hospital making it the first private hospital in Singapore to offer IVF treatment. It also offers a range of other assisted reproduction techniques. There is not waiting list, with 70% of patients coming from within Singapore and the remainder coming from the rest of the region, mainly Indonesia.
Says Dr Cheng: “IVF treatment is one of many ways to fulfill a couple’s desire to have a child. It is the ultimate in fertility treatment, and consequently, it is associated with a lot of stress — physical, emotional, and financial. At the end of the day, fertility treatment is life-giving treatment, not life-saving treatment. Thus, coules have toweigh is needed to achieve pregnancy against what they want.
With many couples opting to have a career first and think about having children later, their chances of conceiving naturally decrease with age.
“It is easier to have children when you are younger, and if there are problems to begin with, then conceiving can be a problem,” says Dr Cheng. “We should start having babies at 18, 19, and 20, like in the good old days,” he adds, smiling. Leaving parenthood until a later age is very much an urban problem, and as more countries achieve first world status it seems like the problem will get worse. Fortunately, technology can help.
What are the prospects for conceiving a child?
- Becoming pregnant is such a complex process that there is a much greater probability of not becoming pregnant during a monthly cycle than ever becoming pregnant.
- Even for a completely fertile couple having regularly unprotected sexual intercourse, the chance of conception within one menstural cycle is only 20%-30% (i.e. odds of up to 5 to 1).
- The pregnancy rates after treatment for fertility problems can also be around this level, if everything goes according to plan, which means several treatment cycles may be necessary before a woman can become pregnant.
- Of course, the individual prospects depend on the severity of the fertility problem and on the woman’s age. In the case of correctable hormonal disturbances, with or without slight restrictions in male fertility, pregnancy can be achieved by about 70% of couples within four treatment cycles. In cases of IVF (fertilization of egg with sperm outside the body), the prospects of pregnancy within four treatment cycles is about 50% to 60%.
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