More proof comes from a recent study published in the journal Reproduction. The study found that couples who were waiting for treatment had on average a 9 percent chance of becoming pregnant within a year--without treatment. But for some couples the chance was as high as 25 percent. The researchers included couples who were registered on a national waiting list for IVF in the Netherlands (to get on the list, couples have to meet strict criteria of severity or length of infertility and have tried more basic treatments). Of the 5,962 couples, 316 became pregnant while they waited (718 had not begun IVF and not gotten pregnant in a year).
Those with a better chance of getting pregnant without treatment were couples diagnosed with unexplained infertility (one of the most common diagnoses of infertility), male factor infertility or infertility caused by immunological factors as well as those who had been infertile for less time and couples with secondary infertility. Chances lowered with the woman’s age as well as for women with tubal infertility or endometriosis—though it’s worth noting that endometriosis is graded on a continuum from minimal to mild to moderate to severe, so that women with minimal or mild should not assume that they need IVF to conceive. Previous, yet smaller, studies have found the rate of spontaneous pregnancy in infertile couples to be even higher.
The research suggests how important it is to be certain that you really need the most aggressive type of treatment available today. In my book, Perfect Hormone Balance for Fertility, my co-author, Dr. Greene, and I discuss ways of assessing your fertility factors and determining the level of treatment you need—some couples can start with basic treatments like using ovulation stimulation and intrauterine insemination, rather than jumping to the most costly and invasive IVF.
If you fall into one of the categories with the greater chance of success without treatment, take three months to balance your hormones by making lifestyle changes—eating healthier (less meat, please), losing weight if you need to, reducing stress, doing some yoga, exercising—and checking for any untreated conditions like diabetes, PCOS, or thyroid problems. Taking these steps, which we spell out in our book, will improve your chance of pregnancy, with or without treatment.
For more ways to reduce stress (including improving sleep), see my book, Perfect Hormone Balance for Fertility.
Laurie
Tarkan is the co-author of Perfect Hormone Balance for Fertility
and Perfect Hormone Balance for
Pregnancy. She writes for the New York Times and national magazines and is
also the author of My Mother's Breast: Daughters Face Their Mothers' Cancer.
Check out Laurie's recent post on the Huffington Post.
Toxic Wombs
and infertility related articles:
Lowering Odds of Multiple Births
and
Are Men Overlooked at Fertility Centers
as well as her co-author, Dr. Robert Greene's bulletin board on www.haveababy.com
[photo credit: Getty Images]
