Almost 1 out of 6 women are affected by infertility. But in the era of technological transformation, IVF is becoming a top-notch choice for people. But most don’t even know how several things impact the success rate.
If you are considering a journey to parenthood through In-vitro Fertilization (IVF), then you should know some important things. Don’t worry, this article will guide you to know how to enhance your IVF success rate, along with the role of age and embryo selection on IVF.
Fact stats:
- In the first go, the success rate of IVF is 40.5%, while the success rate increases with a good run of the treatment, according to the All India Institute of Medical Science (IMS).
- With proper care, women under 35 age have success chances of around 32%, while women above 35 have 25% and this decreases with age.
- As per fertility experts, most IVF failures happen because of the poor quality of embryos used in the treatment. Out of all the facts, age, and embryo selection are some of the core factors.
- Around 4% of Indian women have folate deficiency, which also contributes to IVF failure.
Boost the chances of IVF success
Add a healthy diet
For fertilization and egg development, the body requires essential nutrients, because these also influence hormonal balance. Also, the proper level of antioxidants helps in protecting cells from getting damaged. Foods like grains, lean proteins, legumes, fruits, and vegetables improve bodily functions. Additionally, vitamins C and E protect the body from oxidative stress, omega-3 balances and supports cell development, iron helps in fetal development, and limiting sugary improves overall health. It is better to avoid processed food items, as these cause inflammation in the body which shows detrimental effects on fertility.
Drink plenty of water
You might be thinking, how water can help to boost the chances? Here is the answer.
Through proper water intake, our body’s natural blood circulation improves which is very crucial for ovaries and egg development. It also supports the body in flushing out toxins, preventing unnecessary bloating, supporting egg quality, maintaining hormonal balance, ensuring a favorable environment for embryo implantation, aiding in producing healthy cervical mucus, and reducing inflammation in the body.
Avoid smoking and drinking
Smoking and drinking have the ability to impair sperm motility, production, and morphology. Also, it increases oxidative stress in the body, because drinking and smoking imbalances hormones, damage molecules, and antioxidants, damages cell membranes, and impacts DNA along with other components of the reproductive system.
By reducing or quitting consumption, it is easy to stabilize bodily functions. However, your body requires a minimum of three months to completely flush out smoking and drinking effects. But after that, the body adopts its natural process and can increase the success rate of the IVF process.
Exercise regularly
We all know how weight influences disease in our bodies. Exercise balances hormones, manages weight, enhances blood flow, and ensures overall health. By maintaining a healthy body mass index (BMI), you can ensure that your reproductive organs are healthy. Although, it does not alter the chances of miscarriage or defects, but can definitely protect from obesity, which is important for IVF success.
Also, it enhances the adequate blood flow in the pelvic area. It aims to improve the uterine environment (make sure the uterus receives sufficient oxygen and nutrients), develop thick and healthy endometrial lining, balance hormones to ensure ovulations, and decrease inflammation in the pelvic area, supporting embryo development. Surprisingly, those who indulge in regular physical activity show more positive results than those who don’t.
Add folic supplements
This supports embryonic development during IVF, along with DNA synthesis and cell division. Also, several studies indicated that an adequate amount of folic acid improves embryo quality, makes oocytes healthier (supporting DNA integrity), and prevents neural tubes from defects like spina bifida. However, fertility experts recommend taking supplements several months before attempting to start the IVF process. Sources of folic acid are oranges, strawberries, nuts, cauliflower, tomatoes, asparagus, green grapes, cucumber, and soybeans.
Stress management techniques
Cortisol hormones help to manage stress, blood pressure, blood sugar, and inflammation in our body. But if the level of cortisol hormones increases, it drastically has negative impacts. High cortisol impacts the menstrual cycle, decreases the chances of conception, and increases the production of sex hormones, and all this because you are unable to manage stress.
That is why it is crucial to practice stress management techniques to ensure that the body will be in flight mode not in fight mode. Yoga, meditation, connecting with people you love, avoiding unhealthy habits, indulging in your hobbies, etc. These works wonder and boost mood. Also, you can consider talking to an expert, they can guide you to manage your stress level. Although, Parihar IVF always focus on helping their patients, and you can find the best guidance from their professional team.
Medical intervention
Pre-IVF assessment is one of the effective ways to identify whether or not a woman can able to conceive or carry a pregnancy. Under this, fertility professionals perform tests like hormonal level testing, hysterosalpingogram, ovarian reserve testing, thyroid functions, and infectious disease screening.
There are some advanced IVF techniques like intracytoplasmic sperm injection and pre-implementation genetic testing that assist in increasing the success rate of IVF treatment. Pre-implementation genetic testing (PGT) allows doctors to choose the embryo with normal chromosomal properties (as it reduces the chances of implantation failure and miscarriage).
Limiting caffeine consumption
Caffeine potentially impacts IVF success rate, as it affects blood flow, impacts embryo development, and uterine receptivity, disrupts uterine lining, and negatively influences egg quality. Even doctors recommend consuming 1 cup a day only because consumption of caffeine can reduce the chances of IVF success by 50%.
Improve sleeping pattern
You must have heard that sleeping is very important to have a balanced bodily function, and it also reduces the chances of disease. Proper sleeping helps to rejuvenate organs as well as metabolic processes. It helps to regulate estrogen, cortisol, and progesterone, which are key for ovulation. Moreover, sleep deprivation also weakens the immune system, and this is an important consideration as it can impact embryo implantation.
Avoid chemical exposure
Doctors advise all patients to avoid coming in contact with chemicals like BPA, phenol, or products containing paraben, per fluorinated substances, etc. These have the ability to mimic the body’s natural hormones which can be caused by different stages of the reproductive process like ovulation, embryo development, and fertilization.
Monitoring
If you are considering going for IVF, then you should know that consulting with a professional and trustworthy IVF center is important. Parihar IVF is one of the prestigious fertility centers to go for. Once you choose the center, they will conduct all the tests to know your exact condition. Make sure to question every possible doubt that comes into your mind. Through monitoring, and detection, you will get to know the issues, and based on that, your treatment will be started.
How do age and embryo selection influence?
Age influence IVF
Women’s number of eggs decreases with age, and abnormalities in eggs increase. The older the eggs, chances of chromosomal abnormalities are high, and this hinders the fertilization process and embryo development. Also, women are more likely to develop reproductive health issues by age, such as fibroid, endometriosis, etc.
Success rate influenced by number of embryos
When it comes to comparing single or multiple embryos, single embryo transfer is considered to be more effective. Because of multiple embryo transfers, the chances of multiple births, and risk factors for the baby also increase. Research also indicated that a single transfer comes with a 45% success rate, while multiple embryos have a 42% success chance.
That is why, the selection high-quality of embryos for IVF is necessary. Embryologists work with focus to get the best results. Poor quality is filled with genetic abnormalities which potentially lead to complications.
Conclusion
IVF treatment requires time, patience, and lots of changes in lifestyle, as these directly impact the outcomes. With lifestyle changes, you can easily enhance the chances, but most importantly, the age and quality of the embryo play a major role. If you are above than 35, then you should consult with a fertility expert, and ask all the queries to know what are your chances. Moreover, eating a healthy diet, avoiding substances, exercising, and stress management practices are some of the effective ways.
Apart from that, if you are still confused, it is better to consult with Parihar IVF, one of the trustworthy fertility centers in Ajmer.