MY REAL HORRIFYING EXPERIENCE WITH IVF
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A common condition in females which is faced by 10% of the population is Infertility. It is the inability to get a successful pregnancy even after trying for straight 12 months due to some limiting factors. In heterosexual couples, 1/3rd issues are due to male problems, 1/3rd issues are due to female problems and the .rest 1/3rd remains miscellaneous. Infertility caused due to a woman’s limiting factor is called female infertility.
CAUSES OF FEMALE INFERTILITY – there are many factors affecting infertility. Here are a few points jotted down due to which infertility occurs. Certain factors can be brought under control and certain can be treated with medication or surgery.
· Physical issues – to conceive, a woman needs to have a healthy female reproductive organ. It includes ovaries. The fallopian tube, uterus, etc. These organs play an important role in conceiving and pregnancy. Ovulation is the most important factor for a woman who is planning to conceive. Every month a woman of her reproductive age normally releases an egg for fertilization. If intercourse occurs during ovulation and sperm is successful enough to fertilize the egg, it results in fertilization. Due to certain reasons egg is not released regularly. These include a woman’s hormonal imbalance, eating disorder, disease like thyroid, severe stress, etc.
· Issues with egg and their count – a woman is born with n number of eggs which are released every month after she attains puberty. Due to some or other reason, there results in a shortage of eggs released before menopause which results in infertility. There can be instances of issues in eggs also; having a wrong number of chromosomes, cannot fertilize and grow into a healthy fetus, etc.
· Age factor – the reducing fertility after the age of 30 is observed in women which increases the complications while conceiving. Thus experts advise planning a family before both parents exceed the age of 30.
· Structural abnormalities – a woman can have a few glitches in her body, which become observable during her pregnancy. They include – cervical insufficiency, double uterus, surgeries, etc. Due to these reasons chances of infertility increase.
· Woman’s medical condition – uncontrolled diabetes, hypothyroidism, or hyperthyroidism in the mother does not give a favorable condition in conceiving and leads to infertility.
TREATMENTS FOR FEMALE INFERTILITY - Infertility is a natural phenomenon; it is not under anyone’s control. This does not stop a woman from being a mother for the rest of her life.
1. In vitro fertilization (IVF) – with the advent of biotechnology, a test tube baby has now become a ray of hope to parents with few complications.
2. Surrogacy – a woman with a defective mitochondrion has issues with conceiving and becoming a mother, if a healthy mitochondria donor from a woman is received, motherhood can be experienced. Surrogacy laws have now become stricter due to violations and exploitation of the surrogate mother. Parents plan a child in a surrogate and then abandon her, leaving the surrogate woman frustrated and aimless.
3. Adoption – so many children have been abandoned due to certain reasons and they end up in orphanages. Adopting a child does not only give home and shelter but also builds the future of the child.
Not all intercourse results in pregnancy. Only and only when the sperm and ovum fuse in the Ampulla region in the Fallopian tube of a woman, Fertilisation occurs successfully. The fused cell undergoes a division process resulting in a zygote. At this stage, the gender of the child is already decided. After a further division process, the zygote differentiates into an Embryo, which in turn gets attached to the uterus. This entire process is called Implantation, which leads to Pregnancy.
I and my boyfriend ever got married in 2014. We came in contact via a mutual friend and started dating 6 months after that. Both the families were affirmative about our relationship and very happy about the decision of us getting married. After 2 years of marriage, both of us decided on family planning. I and veer tried all forms to conceive naturally, but none worked.
A friend of mine suggested trying in vitro fertilization in the nearby metro city. The technology was totally new to us and we didn’t have enough knowledge about it. My husband showed interest in this new drive and wanted to give it a try. The fertility clinic was newly inaugurated and didn’t have a proper database of patients who successfully conceived.
Instead of looking for other well-established options, veer decided to start the medical treatment in this fertility clinic. The reason being we had limited financial backup for the treatment and both of us were in our 30s. In a week, the treatment began, first of all, I and the veer went through a full body check-up, they checked that I had matured eggs and retrieved them for further process in the lab.
On my check-up, I came to know that I didn’t have fertility issues, veer’s mobility of sperms was low, due to which we were unable to fertilize. The process of assisted reproductive technology had begun, and the first cycle was about to get completed in 3 weeks. After the success of the first cycle, I came to know that I was pregnant; the joy, thrill, and nervousness could not be described. The moment for which I veer was waiting for so many years was finally happening.
In this excitement, the fact of the IVF process slipped my mind. All of a sudden I remembered the reports that read about veer’s infertility. The thought of insemination always disturbed me. I wondered if there was an issue with veer’s infertility, and how come the IVF went successful. I found something was not right, so I contacted my friend in that city to know about the entire clinic and its way of working.
I was taken aback when I came to know that the semen sample injected in every woman patient belonged to one of the doctors. Without my consent, they injected the semen which would result in the birth of a baby boy. This clinic was a small base/research center for genetics and genetically induced disorders. They were planning to promote the birth of an only male child which would carry forward the traits to the next generation.
Not only did I file a complaint against the clinic and made sure legal actions were taken against all of the personnel involved. I was devastated by the news and was in turmoil now, as I had to choose between keeping the child or aborting it. Veer in all this turmoil stood as a rock-solid support system and gave me the entire decision-making powers. Being a woman and a mother-to-be, I did not have the guts to kill my child in the womb or even abandon him or her after birth. I decided to keep the child, although I was cheated by the IVF lab, it was not genetically mine and veer’s child, but I convinced veer that we’ll raise him as our own child, our own blood.