Hormones to Treat Infertility

• Fertility drugs are used to increase the chance of pregnancy. This includes giving FSH and LH in a ‘fertility drug’ to a woman. She may then become pregnant and ovulate more usual in the normal way (intercourse)
• In-Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) treatment

  • IVF involves giving a mother FSH and LH to stimulate the maturation of several eggs
  • The eggs are collected from the mother and fertilised by sperm from the father in the laboratory
  • The fertilised eggs develop into embryos
  • At the stage when they are tiny balls of cells, one or two embryos are inserted into the mother’s uterus (womb)
• A benefit of IVF is that it gives infertile women the chance to have a baby of their own
• Although fertility treatment gives a woman the chance to have a baby of her own:

  • It is very emotionally and physically stressful
  • The success rates are not high
  • It can lead to multiple births which are a risk to both the babies and the mother
  • Not all of the embryos that are created will be transferred into the mother - many embryos are destroyed and some think this is unethical
  • IVF is expensive which leads to people thinking it can be spent on other medical issues (e.g. cancer treatments)