Simple IVF Centers
San Luis Obispo Fertility Center
We want to offer you the best chance for success through the simplest and most affordable treatment option.
Choosing a treatment option usually requires individuals to weigh the physical, emotional, and financial costs against the treatment’s monthly pregnancy success rates.
To aid in deciding which treatment option will be most effective, one can keep in mind that with normal fertility there is a 25% chance of conceiving each month.
It is also helpful to consider the effectiveness of ‘no treatment’. Experts often report a 4% to 5% monthly success rate for young patients with unexplained infertility who are receiving no treatment.
Medical literature has reported the following list of expected success rates for common infertility issues:
Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) and other issues involving ovulation: ovulatory infertility problems are the most prevalent and also the easier to treat.
The treatment of choice is oral fertility medications that are simple to use, have few side effects, and are inexpensive. Letrozole and Clomiphene (Clomid) are a few examples. A 15% to 20% monthly chance of pregnancy can be expected by young women. A promising 50% to 60% of patients can achieve pregnancy within 6 months of beginning treatment.
A woman who does not become pregnant within six months is likely to have additional problems that require advanced diagnostic testing to identify.
Unexplained infertility: infertility is considered ‘unexplained’ when couples have open fallopian tubes, normal ovulation, and a normal semen analysis.
Gynecologist commonly treat these patients with oral fertility medications, such as Clomid, but experts suggest against this option. With medical literature showing a success rate of only 4% per month, this treatment is no different than ‘no treatment’.
[https://www.fertstert.org/article/S0015-0282(09)00866-8/fulltext]
A cost-effective alternative to fertility medications alone is the addition of intrauterine insemination (IUI). This combination may provide many families with an 8% to 12% success rate each month.
The standard of care for this condition lies with In vitro fertilization (IVF) as it often produces a 40% to 60% chance of delivery for young women.
Male Infertility: mild to moderate male infertility can commonly be addressed with intrauterine insemination (IUI). A monthly success rate of 8-12% may be achieved with this method. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4272842/].
Men with severe infertility (less than 5 million moving sperm cells in a sample) have a success rate of under 5% per month when IUI is used. This low success rate is also reported for families who have been unsuccessfully treated with IUI for over 4 months.
If a man has severe infertility, the treatment of choice is in vitro fertilization (IVF) combined with ICSI sperm microinjection. The ICSI treatment often overcomes sperm function problems by using a microneedle to inject a single sperm cell directly into the egg. You can click this link to watch a video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVmQsv8tVMw]. A single embryo transfer can offer a young woman (under age 35) a 40% to 60% chance of delivery.
Blocked or Damaged Fallopian Tubes: when fallopian tubes are damaged, IVF is the only successful treatment option that can be used. However, it often produces a 40% to 60% chance of delivery for young women treated with a single embryo transfer.
Endometriosis: women with endometriosis are often treated similarly to a patient with unexplained infertility. Oral fertility medications don’t offer better success rates than no treatment at all with chances of pregnancy reported at 4% to 5% per month. Success rates may go up to 8% to 12% per month when fertility medications are used in combination with intrauterine insemination (IUI). The highest chance of delivery lies with IVF at a 40% to 60% success rate in young women. Surgery to laser away endometriosis is recommended by some specialists to temporarily improve fertility, but others don’t believe that surgery enhances success in the long term.
Tubal Ligation: there are several good options available to young women with this issue. A 60% chance of pregnancy in the following two years can be expected with surgical repair of the fallopian tubes. Comparable results can be achieved through IVF when all embryos from a single egg harvest are transferred. IVF is a quicker way to achieve pregnancy with less surgical involvement. Multiple pregnancies may be achieved with fallopian tubal anastomosis surgery. Surgery should be avoided in older women due to limited chances of success.
Vasectomy: when selecting a treatment option, the duration of time from vasectomy to reversal as well as the woman partner’s age should be considered. Good results can be achieved with either IVF with testicular sperm extraction (TSE) and ICSI sperm microinjection or vasectomy reversal if conditions are right. Ideal conditions would be with a young woman whose partner has had a vasectomy less than 10 years prior. Less favorable conditions include IVF + TSE treatment with an older woman, more than 10 years of time since a man’s vasectomy, and patients who have other infertility issues.
Woman 40+ years old: because women over 40 lose up to 50% of their fertility every 2 years, time is important for these difficult patients.
Women over 40 who are treated with IUI and oral fertility medications (like Clomid) are often facing a 5% success rate per month, therefore, most experts suggest against this treatment. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4106674/]
IVF treatment can offer the best chance for success at 15% to 25% for women with healthy ovaries who aren’t very far past maternal age. Alternatively, egg donation can help many women in their 40’s achieve a success rate of 45% to 65% per embryo transfer.
Please note: the above information is not intended to diagnose or treat any medical conditions and is only provided for educational purposes. A visit to a physician, along with appropriate diagnostic tests, should occur before treatment is started.