Archive for Blocked Tubes

How to Choose a Fertility Treatment

June 16, 2011 alishiac 2 comments

Many choices in life require little thought. Dinner or a movie? Chinese or Italian? White or wheat?

However, there are some choices in life that require careful thought and research.Choosing a fertility treatment is often one of these choices.

Understanding the causes of infertility, researching the treatment options, and choosing a path that appears to be right for your family building goals can prove to be a difficult journey. Couples are often overwhelmed when met with all the options for fertility treatment.

The two major choices are between the medical approach and the natural approach. Within these categories there are several treatment options.

  • Fertility Treatment OptionsThe Medical Approach
    • In Vitro Fertilization (IVF)
    • Intrauterine Insemination (IUI)
    • Fertility drugs
    • Surgery
    • Gamete intrafallopian transfer (GIFT)
    • Zygote intrafallopian transfer (ZIFT)
    • Donor eggs and embryos

Here are a few tips for couples to keep in mind when choosing:

  1. Go online.
    There are thousands of resources on the web in regards to fertility treatment. Browse forums, blogs, and health websites to gain a well-rounded understanding of all the treatment options that are available.
  2. Talk to those who have experienced it first hand.
    Speaking to a veteran of infertility can help you gain  helpful insights as to what treatment may be like for you. Again, blogs and forums are a great place to find support and advice from those who share your journey.
  3. Keep your well-being in mind.
    Some treatments can be very stressful physically, emotionally and financially. Choose a fertility treatment that makes sense for your health, lifestyle and financial situation. This could save you a world of stress and frustration down the road.
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Opening Blocked Fallopian Tubes – Surgical vs. Natural

June 15, 2011 alishiac No comments


Blocked Tubes and Infertility
As the place where natural conception occurs, the fallopian tubes are truly the place where life begins. Due to their location and size, fallopian tubes can become blocked from pelvic scars or adhesions. Together, these “mechanical causes” account for about 40% of all female infertility. Tubes can block near the uterus (proximal), by the ovary (distal) or in the middle of the tube (mid-tubal). In some cases, the tube swell with a fluid in a condition called hydrosalpinx.  While a single blocked tube impairs fertility, blockage of both tubes causes total infertility.

Surgical Tools

Surgery
Until recently, the only options for women with blocked tubes were to undergo surgery to open one or both tubes, or to remove the blocked tubes, and proceed directly to in vitro fertilization (IVF). This is often the recommended course that infertility specialists offer to women with hydrosalpinx.

 

Natural Treatment – The Wurn Technique
The Wurn TechniqueSeveral medical journals have now examined a manual physical therapy (Wurn Technique®) for its ability to open and return function to totally blocked fallopian tubes, including hydrosalpinx. The “hands-on” treatment opened tubes in most of the study participants, without surgery or drugs. Most of the successes had natural pregnancies and births after therapy. Several reported subsequent pregnancies/births, so the positive results lasted for years for these women. In other published studies, the therapy significantly decreased pelvic and intercourse pain, and improved sexual function. The therapy can be used as a stand-alone infertility treatment or in conjunction with regular medical care.

Surgical Treatment vs. Natural Treatment
In comparing the treatment options for opening blocked fallopian tubes, we find the following results:

Pros and cons of the Wurn Technique, a hands-on physical therapy:

  • Pros of the Wurn Technique
    • Requires no drugs
    • Requires no surgery
    • Published studies and citations show good results
    • Lower risks and costs than surgery
    • Results can last for years – allows for several natural pregnancies
    • Success opening blockages throughout the tube (proximal, mid-tubal, distal)
  • Cons of the Wurn Technique
    • Few US clinic locations (Florida, California, Washington DC)
    • Limited published data

Pros and cons of surgery to open blocked fallopian tubes:

  • Pros of Surgery
    • Many studies are published documenting its success
    • Has good success in opening blockages that are near the uterus
  • Cons of Surgery
    • Higher risks and costs than the Wurn Technique
    • Risk of damaging other tissues or organs during surgery
    • Poor results opening tubes blocked beyond the uterus (mid-tubal or distal)
    • Repair of blockage near the uterus gives a limited time to conceive
    • Removal of the tube is permanent
    • Possible side effects from anesthesia

Interested in learning more about opening blocked fallopian tubes with the Wurn Technique? Download our free eBook on treating blocked fallopian tubes naturally.

Blocked Tubes eBook

Preserving Fertility

June 2, 2011 alishiac No comments


Throughout the infertility community, there are many who wish they could turn back the hands of their fertility clock. In the years of the baby boomers, women started families at the ripe age of 17 and 18. Today’s generation of fertility age women have shown a growing trend in restructuring the life timeline of their parents and grandparents to pursue careers and life goals before beginning a family.

A recent article by NPR takes a look at Extend Fertility, the first company to sell egg freezing as a lifestyle choice.

Christy Jones, founder and CEO of Extend Fertility, suggests that younger women should begin to consider preserving their fertility by freezing their eggs in their early 20s and 30s.  This concept speaks to the growing trend of women having children later in life. However, the thought of preserving fertility for use later in life seems to overlook the issues seen by the infertility community.

The media seems to depict only two extremes in the current world of fertility. There are the extremely young, being “16 and Pregnant”, and the extremely old, made up of celebrities who are having children well into their 40s. However, what the media neglects to state, is that many of these celebrities have used donated eggs.

Neither of these publicized groups accurately represent the fertility struggles faced by one in eight US couples. Many of these couples face problems such as blocked fallopian tubes, endometriosis, PCOS, hormonal infertility, secondary infertility, and unexplained infertility. For these couples, the egg is not the problem. Often times these fertility issues are caused by adhesions that restrict the reproductive organs and hormonal glands from working together as nature intended.

About ten years ago ASRM (the American Society for Reproductive Medicine) ran a campaign focused on making women mindful of the ever present fertility hourglass. The campaign received significant criticism from both career women and the infertility community. It seems the freezing of ones eggs oversimplifies the problems related to infertility. However, for those who have encountered problems with their eggs later in life, it may seem a worthy investment.

What are your thoughts? Leave a comment below.

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Treating Hydrosalpinx Infertility

April 13, 2011 alishiac No comments

What is a hydrosalpinx?

Hydrosalpinx is a collection of watery fluid within the fallopian tube, usually as a result of damage at the distal (far) end of the tube, near the ovary.

How does a hydrosalpinx form?

Just as your knee might swell when it is damaged or inflamed, the fluid pools in the damaged tube causing it to swell or dilate, as a natural part of healing from inflammation. Whether from a prior surgery, an inflammation or an infection, the delicate geography of the pelvis responds to these traumas by forming adhesions and often times a hydrosalpinx.


How does hydrosalpinx cause infertility?

In most cases, a hydrosalpinx indicates that the fallopian tube is totally blocked at the far end. There, the delicate flower petal-like fimbriae which are designed to grasp the egg as it exits the ovary become adhered or clubbed together, closing the tube completely. Hydrosalpinx is a serious threat to fertility. It not only renders the affected tube(s) totally ineffective, it may also lessen the effectiveness of various infertility treatments (e.g. in vitro fertilization [IVF]).

How is hydrosalpinx treated?

Surgery

Neosalpingostomy (surgery that incises the hydrosalpinx and leaves an opening in the tube) is a surgical treatment option. The tube, however, often closes again enabling the hydrosalpinx to return. The most positive results are obtained with younger women and women with small hydrosalpinges. For others, the preferred treatment is usually total surgical removal of the tube prior to IVF.

The Wurn Technique

The Wurn Technique is a  non-surgical infertility treatment that uses pelvic physical therapy to decrease the adhesions causing tubal damage and hydrosalpinx. Once mobility is restored, the previously blocked tube(s) often regains normal function, creating a free path for conception to occur. Many women with a diagnosis of hydrosalpinx became pregnant naturally after receiving this hands- on therapy.

Click here to learn more about treating hydrosalpinx with the Wurn Technique.

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Fertility Treatment – The Natural Way

April 11, 2011 alishiac No comments

Fertility Treatment Options

Couples having trouble getting pregnant suffer frustration, even shame. Experts estimate that about 20 percent of couples will suffer from infertility, temporarily or permanently. The incidence of infertility is about equally divided between women and men. The causes of infertility are both physical and psychological. But, happily, a number of effective fertility treatments are available.

Nature’s Way

Doctors recommend that women try at least one year to get pregnant naturally before seeking help. Timing and observation are the keys. Fertility experts say that to get pregnant, women should have sex two or three days before they ovulate, their most fertile days.

So-called alternative fertility treatments may help some women. Claims have been made for fertility herbs, oils, massages and diets. More research needs to be done on these types of fertility treatments. But two alternative fertility treatments that have been researched and proven effective are acupuncture and a particular physical therapy.

When combined with conventional medical fertility treatments, acupuncture has been shown to be beneficial. It’s believed that acupuncture reduces stress hormones in the body, which interfere with conception.

A unique physical therapy procedure called the Wurn technique has proved highly effective. This hands-on fertility treatment breaks down adhesions, or scarring, one of the leading causes of infertility. This fertility treatment uses pelvic physical therapy to decrease adhesions and increase the function of reproductive organs and glands.

Many women choose natural or alternative fertility treatments because no surgery or drugs are involved. Although alternative therapies are gaining favor, most women still choose conventional fertility treatments, which, in general, do involve surgery or drugs.

Medical Interventions

Surgery to repair part of the reproductive system—in either women or men—helps in some cases. For example, surgery is used to remove fibroid tumors from the uterus or adhesions from the fallopian tubes, both common causes of infertility.

The most common fertility treatment is the administration of fertility drugs to women, either through pills or through injections. Fertility drugs help balance a woman’s hormone levels and help her body ovulate. Some fertility drugs increase the number of eggs a woman produces. This can lead to multiple births—twins, triplets or more.

Another, more advanced, fertility treatment goes under the broad category of assisted reproductive technology (ART). ART differs from intrauterine insemination (IUI), or artificial insemination, in which only the sperm is handled. With IUI, the donor sperm is inserted into the woman’s uterus through a catheter. IUI is an in-office procedure. With ART, both sperm and eggs are manipulated.

In ART procedures, eggs from a woman’s ovaries are surgically removed, combined with sperm in a laboratory and returned to the woman’s body. In vitro fertilization is the best-known ART procedure. Although effective, ART poses some potential problems, including low birth weight, premature delivery and multiple births.

Given the range of fertility treatments available, women need to work with their primary care provider or obstetrician/gynecologist to find just the right fertility treatment to help them become pregnant.

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