However, the diagnosis of infertility is made only when pregnancy does not occur within a year, says the doctor. In 10% of cases, patients solve the problem with conservative or surgical therapy, and 90% of couples resort to assisted reproductive technologies (ART).
Melnikova pointed out that today in half of the cases the cause of “infertility” is the male factor, something that just 40 or 50 years ago was practically unknown. According to her, this may be due to bad environment, poor diet and stress.
“For example, obesity has been increasing progressively in recent decades. Naturally, this cannot have a good effect on either the male or female reproductive system,” says the doctor.
Another reason why people often cannot have a child is that couples started thinking about it too late, closer to age 35. This age is considered the upper reproductive age.
In fact, the average age of patients visiting the clinic for in vitro fertilization (IVF) today is 36-38 years, confirms Elena Mladova, chief physician at the Remedi Institute of Reproductive Medicine. At the same time, according to her, in our country there are no reproductive age restrictions for IVF.
“Today we see that even women over 45 years of age can become mothers using assisted reproductive technologies. But we still recommend completing the reproductive function by reaching the age of 50,” the doctor emphasized.
Mladova noted that the success of the IVF procedure depends on the woman’s age: the younger the patient, the greater the guarantee that she will become pregnant. Today, the average pregnancy rate after embryo transfer is 35-36%.
Meanwhile, patients began to freeze their biomaterial more frequently, postponing the birth of a child until later, the doctor noted.
“In a modern reproductive medicine clinic, up to 15% of requests are related to freezing biomaterial,” he explained. On average, the egg freezing procedure costs 150 thousand rubles. They can be kept for as long as the woman decides. But reproduction specialists recommend freezing them before the age of 35.
According to Mladova, in our country it is impossible to choose the sex of a child during IVF, so patients do not set themselves such a task. But it is allowed to select an embryo free of a genetic mutation.
“If patients go to a geneticist and the carrier factor for a genetic disease has been established, an embryo free of the mutation is selected,” he concluded.
Previously, the Federal Compulsory Medical Insurance Fund reported that this year the in vitro fertilization procedure has become more accessible to a greater number of patients due to the increase in the average standard. You can get a referral for IVF at a prenatal clinic or family planning center where you live. Not only married couples can apply, but also couples living without registering their marriage, as well as single women.
The procedure is carried out in a medical organization chosen by the patient from the list of proposed organizations.
