Does fertility treatment have any side effects?

With fertility treatment becoming cheaper and more popular, couples are choosing IVF without thinking too much about it.  After all, many people already know someone who got a child through artificial insemination and of course so many celebrities undergo in vitro fertilization that it makes as much news as their being arrested for DUI. 

Since the fertility experts make tons of money in these procedures, their goal is to maximize number of pregnancies, even if they eventually end in miscarriages or deformed babies are born (for these they always blame the parents).  Of course they also don't care what happens after a child is born.

Now experts are learning that kids born through IVF are more likely to have diseases like high blood pressure, diabetes and certain cancers.  The reason is that when conception takes outside the body, the cells are exposed to way more oxygen than what they get inside the womb.  This changes how many and which genes are turned on.

DNA damage in sperm

When a couple is unable to become parents, it is a good idea to do some tests to detect fertility problems. While women over 40 have a difficult time getting pregnant due to advanced age, men may often be the ones to be responsible for infertility because of low sperm count or poor sperm quality.

Now, for any couple trying to make a baby, it is common sense to be very active in the bedroom (the more you do it the more the chances of a good sperm hitting an egg), now there is scientific research done by Dr David Greening of Sydney IVF that daily ejaculation for a week cut the amount of DNA damage seen in sperm samples.

I am sure it will make a lot of men very happy, but on a more serious note, fresher semen also showed higher motility even with a drop in sperm count. So ladies, get ready for a bed workout every night.

Birth abnormalities due to fertility treatment

I have previously answered the question if fertility treatments work.

I think that there is some more information that should make you rethink assisted reproductive techniques (ART). A study by Jennita Reefhuis shows that kids born through IUI and IVF are 2-4 times more likely to have birth defects like heart problems, cleft lip, cleft palate and abnormalities in the esophagus or rectum.

Obviously there are several caveats but the major takeaway from this is to let Nature do its magic, try not to have a baby during advanced maternal age, and there are plenty of kids waiting to be adopted.

How did Nicole Kidman get pregnant?

It is widely speculated that one reason for the divorce of Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise was her inability to give birth to a child - she had a miscarriage. The couple had adopted children. Once she got married to Keith Urban, and without any fertility treatment, she got pregnant and gave birth to a healthy child (daughter Sunday Rose). So even though Nicole was at an advanced age for motherhood, she got pregnant naturally.

How did it happen?

According to her, while shooting the movie "Australia," she went swimming in an Australian Outback waterfall near Kununurra, a small town in far northern part of Western Australia state.

"Seven babies were conceived out of this film and only one was a boy. There is something up there in the Kununurra water because we all went swimming in the waterfalls, so we can call it the fertility waters now," she says.

Now before you start planning a trip to Australia, remember that there is no such thing as a fertility waterfall. It is just superstition and a result of coincidence. Yes, fertility diet and lifestyle changes can alter a woman's fertility and improve the sperm quality of a man.

And to improve the chances of pregnancy further, one of the things that experts now recommend is a procreation vacation. The idea is to be in a beautiful place where you are both relaxed and as you track your ovulation, you can make love at that perfect moment because both of you are available and ready. If that is the only reason you want to travel to Australia, go right ahead, but do not expect anything more.

Naomi Campbell pregnancy

One of the biggest challenges that college-educated, ambitious women face is that they have to balance work and life and have to make choices that can come to haunt them later. While the best time to get married (the right age to get married, according to several studies, is late 20s) and have children is in your late twenties to early thirties, career-minded women do not have that freedom.

And with all the commitment phobia among men, long-term relationships and marriages ending up in divorce 50% of the time, is not rare to see a woman end up close to 40 with no child.

And we all know that pregnancy after 40 is nearly impossible without IUI or IVF or some other kind of fertility treatment, and even if that happens, there are higher possibilities of genetic disorders.

Supermodel Naomi Campbell is one such woman who is now 38 and realizes that she does not have children. It turns out that while she was not actively trying to get pregnant, though, the Russian billionaire Vladislav Doronin will definitely prove to be a rich father the way Salma Hayek landed a rich father Francois-Henri Pinault for her daughter. What she learned recently that she was technically infertile until a surgery corrected it. Now she is saying that she is ready to start a family.

The message here is that if you are not getting pregnant after trying for 12 months, it is time to seek fertility treatment.

IUI, IVF for lesbians

The sad reality is that despite all the small advances made by gays and lesbians, they are openly discriminated in all walks of life. Homophobia is actually on the rise, largely driven by Republican politics and hatred created by many Christian groups.

The case of Guadalupe "Lupita" Benítez highlights how the name of Jesus Christ can be used by so-called Christians to find an excuse to discriminate. That is exactly what these so-called doctors Christine Brody and Douglas Fenton were doing. They belong to the same category of Christians who supposedly value life but strongly support death penalty. Similarly, they want to protect the institution of marriage but are fighting strongly against gay marriage laws.

The decision by California Supreme Court means that hopefully doctors will stop telling you why you cannot be a mom and do what their job is, that is, to dispense medicine. I wouldn't be surprised if something did not go right because the pharmacists already have the right to deny you your legally prescribed medication because their so-called God tells them not to.

While the last thing on a couple's mind when they are trying to become parents (particularly after 40 when each day matters) is a lawsuit but if you have to do it, it is worth it. Lupita's fight paid off. She is now a happy mom.

Do fertility treatments work?

When a woman is unable to get pregnant particularly after she is 40, it is natural for the couple to get desperate. That is when the greedy fertility treatment industry starts to exploit them. While many such couples may be able to pay for the outrageously expensive assisted reproductive therapy (ART) with the help of their insurance company (it is mandated by law in those cases), others will have to come up with tens of thousands of dollars on their own, often through financing with high interest rates.

Most people borrow this money and can get stuck in a cycle of debt for decades or even declare bankruptcy, often without becoming parents.

The so-called fertility doctors (and a whole industry that now includes acupuncturists, yoga teachers, natural medicine doctors, personal consultants, etc.) are in great position to exploit the desperate people. If the couple gets even technically pregnant, they take all the credit, and keep pushing them to try again (often more money, though, to trap them they will give some discounts not available to first-time patients).

And if you do not get pregnant, then they put all the blame on you. "You are too old, your eggs are no good, your husband has low sperm count, your husband has low sperm motility, etc.," they say.

Well, if you are one of those people that are desperate to have your own child but are unable to get pregnant, here is a piece of news that may save you tens of thousands of dollars.

According to research published in the British Medical Journal, use of drugs like Clomid and artificial insemination is no more useful than trying to get pregnant naturally. These fertility drugs also have serious side effects, chances of multiple babies is high (it may appear like great news to have more than one baby when you struggled to have just one, but these pregnancies are complicated with risk of death for both the babies and mother and higher possibility of development complications in children) and long-term effects on a woman's body, particularly menopause, are not yet known.

I can understand why it is tempting to undergo treatment. You feel that you are doing something and trying really hard, but trust me, the best way to try really hard is to hole up with your spouse in your bedroom.

So are IUI and IVF worthwhile?

No. They only make sense when natural pregnancy is impossible, for example, when using donor eggs or sperms or using a surrogate mother or when the fallopian tubes are blocked.

Poor sperm quality

Right now if you do not know that being fat is bad, you are either a moron or living under a stone. This is not the place to discuss all the complications associated with being overweight, but I want to highlight one major problem for men who want to make a baby but are fat. It is widely documented that pregnancy for obese women is a huge risk and fertility of overweight women is much lower than that of physically fit ladies.

New research from University of Aberdeen by Ghiyath Shayeb says that obese men have lower sperm count than normal-weight men, their sperms are also of poor quality and could have damaged DNA raising the risk of birth abnormalities. In other words their sperms do not move fast and far enough, and are therefore, incapable of fertilization, and are thus a major cause of infertility in men.

The net result is that unless the woman is very healthy and could compensate for a man's sperm problems, it is best that obese people first get on a weight loss program before considering to become parents.

Cell phones lower sperm count

For a woman trying to get pregnant and having difficulty conceiving, there are several reasons that can hurt her: age, obesity, and other complications with the reproductive system.

But the male in her life may also be contributing to not conceiving.

Latest research conducted by Cleveland Clinic has found that men who have cell phones glued to their years may have lower quality sperm -- lower sperm count and higher percentage of abnormal sperms. BTW, you can raise sperm count by avoiding soy foods.

By the way, it has long been suspected that mobile phones cause cancer but no firm evidence has been presented by either side.

Balance work and family

Sabrina is a single, 29-year old woman struggling with the issue of family and career. "I am thinking about going to pharmacy school, and you know it takes 6 years to finish pharmacy school. Do you think it's too late, or people do this kind of thing? Actually, I don't want to be single by the time I'm 35-36, but I see many women that delay relationships and marriage for the sake of their education and jobs. I would like a loving family, but I have the impression that if you decide to study something like pharmacy, you don't have time for anything else like dating and family? Please help me decide," she writes.

The good thing about modern America is that you can do literally anything at any age. Plus, you do not have to wait to finish your pharmacy program to get married. You can get married while you are a student and continue your education.

In any case, if you want to wait to get married till you finish the program, yes, I agree it will be late because by that time all good guys are already married (since you are not in a relationship right now, this is important) or very few single men left. A woman's fertility also drops in her late 30s and is much harder to get pregnant in your 40s in case you decide to enjoy a few years of your marriage without children. But if you like pharmacy and think that you would love to have a career in that, then go ahead and do it - I am sure that you will find some guy in the meantime and get married while you are still a student. Yes, it is hard to have a husband and children and also go to school but many women do it and so can you.

Raise sperm count by avoiding soy foods

When a woman tries to get pregnant, especially in her 40s, and it is difficult to conceive, the couple might not approach a reproductive specialist. Technically, after 12 months of trying, a couple may be able to seek infertility treatment. In that case, a series of tests will be done and the doctors will tell you what to do.

While couples can choose to do an in-home fertility test called Fertell, it may not give you all the answers. For instance, the sperm count can have a big role to play. Alcohol or drug abuse, obesity, unhealthy diet, stress, and depression are some of the reasons that lower sperm count, a latest study suggests that eating soy products may also drastically lower sperm count.

For obvious reasons, it is a controversial study. Asians consume a lot of soyabeans but to the best of my knowledge there is no fertility crisis in Asia. On the contrary, that is still the region with the fastest growing population.

So should you stop eating soy?

Unless you have strong reasons to eat it, I would suggest that it is a minor dietary change that you can easily make. If you eat animal products, you can get your protein that way. If you are a vegetarian, you can get your protein from beans.

How to improve chances of pregnancy?

Believe it or not but even a woman at the prime or her reproductive years (late teens and early 20s) does not have a 100% possibility of getting pregnant. The probability keeps dropping and it is nearly impossible to get pregnant in your 40s. Women like Michelle Duggar are rare and it is also believed that Nancy Grace did not get pregnant naturally.

While the egg quality drops with age, many women of advanced maternal age also find that they cannot accurately measure their ovulation - a key to getting pregnant. Measuring basal temperature or doing an ovulation test helps but they are not 100% reliable.

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Dangers of Paxil

Scientists have now been able to confirm that women subconsciously notice they are ovulating and change their behavior as well. For example, women will dress more provocatively during this period. So as a man you will notice that change in your spouse right away but as a woman if you feel yourself reaching out to a pair of thongs or lace boy shorts or going braless, you know it is time to invite your man to the bedroom.

Other changes that anyone can notice during ovulation are changes in facial feature, sense of smell, and waist to hip ratio.

How to get pregnant after 40?

Getting pregnant after 40 is not easy, if impossible. A woman's fertility drops significantly chances of miscarriage and birth defects explode. While there are some cures for infertility, and doctors can try assisted reproductive therapy (ART) procedures like IUI and IVF, the probability of a live birth is low.

One woman who has beaten the odds is Halle Berry (It seems that Nancy Grace did not get pregnant naturally). A negative pregnancy test is a very emotional moment for any woman trying to get pregnant but she saved all of them for some strange reason. After 35 tests, she got a positive test.

So what is the takeaway from the story of Halle Berry?

"While I was trying to get pregnant, we tried really hard, so it was a lot of staying home and just doing what you do," she told Oprah. In other words, since the probability is low, the best way to increase it to have sex more often and monitor your ovulation closely.