Ovulation disorders account for 8% of infertility causes.
Causes of infertility – ovulation disorders
According to estimates, the ovarian factor occurs in about 20% of women who seek help from a specialist due to unsuccessful efforts to conceive. The essence of the ovarian factor are ovulation disorders.
How to diagnose ovulation disorders?
Very rare ovulations or their complete absence are diagnosed as apart of menstrual cycle monitoring (consultation with a cycle monitoring or, for InviMed patients, cycle monitoring). Patients with the ovarian factor usually also have mild hormonal disorders.
Ovulation disorders and PCOS
Ovulation disorders most often occur secondary to the Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS). Although the affected women develop ovarian follicles, the maturing egg cell in them is not released into the fallopian tube because the follicle does not break open. In this situation, fertilization cannot occur and the follicles die spontaneously, transforming into a cyst. With time, there are more and more such cysts in the ovary.
How to induce ovulation?
If the patient has patent fallopian tubes and her partner’s semen has the correct parameters, we usually perform hormonal stimulation, the aim of which is to achieve ovarian follicle growth. Then their rupture is induced in each subsequent cycle. Pills or injections containing gonadotropins are used for stimulation. When selecting the drugs, physicians take into account the patient's age, her hormone profile, the result of previous stimulations and the cause of ovulation disorders. Treatment is continued for no longer than one year, and the percentage of pregnancies obtained in this way is 20-30%.
If an appropriate ovulation stimulation method is not selected or does not result in pregnancy, after a year's effort to conceive the couple are eligible for in vitro fertilization treatment. Patients with a polycystic ovarian syndrome are more susceptible to ovarian hyperstimulation, therefore instead of hormonal and classical in vitro stimulation, they are offered IVM procedure (in vitro maturation of egg cells). It involves the collection of immature egg cells, their maturation under laboratory conditions, followed by in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer to the uterine cavity.