First Steps towards Becoming a Mother

There comes a stage in every woman’s live when she decides to have a child. Unfortunately, the cases where women experience troubles conceiving or carrying their pregnancy to term have become a frequent matter lately. Prior to commencing in vitro fertilisation, it is very important that women with fertility issues be diagnosed for factors that may adversely affect a potential pregnancy.

The key to solving the issues of some women is hormonal therapy. With others, the reasons causing infertility issues may be overcome with surgery, and those solutions bring about an increase in the success rate of in vitro procedures and make it more likely for one to become a mother. Issues involving the uterus, Fallopian tubes and ovaries are the three major fields that may call for surgery prior to in vitro fertilisation.

Undoubtedly, a healthy pregnancy depends on the harmony between the uterus and the embryo. Therefore, both the quality of the embryo and the health of the uterus matter in that process. If a couple has trouble conceiving, any issues involving the uterus, Fallopian tubes and ovaries should be sought. It is only when such issues have been resolved, that in vitro fertilisation may commence. Previously, if an infertile couple was to apply for in vitro fertilisation, the first thing to do was to perform diagnostic laparoscopy or diagnostic hysteroscopy. Today, however, in the context of the latest discoveries, it has been established that those diagnostic tests are irrelevant in terms of increasing the success rate of treatment. That is why it would not be right to directly forward for diagnostic laparoscopy or diagnostic hysteroscopy any couple that claims infertility.

So, what surgeries are recommended prior to in vitro procedures, in what situations and who is likely to benefit from them? In the articles that follow, Tayfun Kutlu, M.D., Medical Director of the In Vitro Centre with Anadolu Medical Center, and Ebru Öztürk Öksüz, M.D., a gynaecologist, obstetrician and in vitro fertilisation specialist, will present the latest treatment methods and will provide insights intended for couples who want to have a child.