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But couples having difficulty getting pregnant can tell you the solution
is almost never as simple as wearing boxers instead of briefs. Lisa
(who asked that her last name not be used) tried for more than two
years to get pregnant without success. "Everyone gave me advice,"
she says. "My mother said I should just go to church and pray more.
My friends said, 'Try to relax and not think about it' or 'You're just
overstressed. You work too much.'"
Will the therapies work? "Talking about the success rate for fertility
treatments is like saying, 'What's the chance of curing a headache?'"
according to Benjamin Younger, M.D., executive director of the
American Society for Reproductive Medicine. "It depends on many
things, including the cause of the problem and the severity." Overall,
Younger says, about half of couples that seek fertility treatment will be
able to have babies.
A woman over 30 may wish to get an earlier evaluation. "At age 30, a
woman begins a slow decline in her ability to get pregnant," says
Younger. "The older she gets, the greater her chance of miscarriage,
too." But a woman's fertility doesn't take a big drop until around age
40.
"A man's age affects fertility to a much smaller degree and 20 or 30
years later than in a woman," Younger says. Despite a decrease in
sperm production that begins after age 25, some men remain fertile
into their 60s and 70s.
Other problems can also lead to female infertility. If the fallopian tubes
are blocked at one or both ends, the egg can't travel through the tubes
into the uterus. Such blockage may result from pelvic inflammatory
disease, surgery for an ectopic pregnancy (when the embryo implants
in the fallopian tube rather than in the uterus), or other problems,
including endometriosis (the abnormal presence of uterine lining cells
in other pelvic organs).
The man's evaluation focuses on the number and health of his sperm.
The laboratory first examines a sperm sample under a microscope to
check sperm number, shape and movement. Further tests may be
needed to look for infection, hormonal imbalance, or other problems.
Therapy with the fertility drug Clomid or with a more potent hormone
stimulator--Pergonal, Metrodin, Humegon, or Fertinex--is often
recommended for women with ovulation problems. The benefits of
each drug and the side effects, which can be minor or serious but rare,
should be discussed with the doctor. Multiple births occur in 10 to 20
percent of births resulting from fertility drug use.
If drugs aren't the answer, surgery may be. Because major surgery is
involved, operations to repair damage to the woman's ovaries,
fallopian tubes, or uterus are recommended only if there is a good
chance of restoring fertility.
Fulfillment Regardless
And no, according to Resolve, you're not more likely to get pregnant if
you adopt a baby.
--T.N.
FDA asked doctors to wait until the supply of approved drugs increased
unless a patient was in the midst of therapy. "There's always a danger
in taking unapproved drugs because they are of unknown quality and
haven't been shown to FDA to be safe, effective, and adequately
labeled," Gardine says.
The following fertility drugs are approved by FDA and can be obtained
with a doctor's prescription:
Some of these drug products may be sold under other brand names by
distributors who buy the products from the listed manufacturers.