14 DAY TRIAL // Women resorting to IVF (in vitro fertilization) take drugs to boost egg maturation in their ovaries. These ovules are extracted by doctors and fertilized in the laboratory; but some women's ovaries cannot generate any egg even under medication, and in such cases the treatment fails.
As IVF treatment means $10,000 to $15,000, many potential patients make tests before, to verify their chances. These checks are made with drugs that raise the synthesis of follicle-stimulating hormone in their bodies.
When the ovaries are functional, they can counteract these hormonal effects in one week and blood tests can reveal this. But these drugs pose secondary effects like hot flashes and severe mood changes.
Now - based on a research made on 110 women with fertility problems - a team led by Janet Kwee at the Free University in Amsterdam in the Netherlands found that ultrasound scans could be similarly good at predicting a woman's chance of success in case of IVF, just as the costly, invasive and time-consuming hormone tests are. The ultrasound scan of the ovaries is employed to count the number of follicles (fluid-filled sacs in the ovary which feed and protect developing ovules).
More follicles means more eggs, thus a higher likelihood that IVF will work. A healthy woman produces 2-20 follicles monthly, but only one completes its development releasing an ovule during ovulation. Fertility drugs helps all of the follicles to complete their development and the doctors can collect more ovules, fertilize them with sperm in the laboratory dish and then implant them in a patient's uterus.
Kwee's method of follicle count confirmed: 82% of the time, the ultrasound scan positively detected women who later succeeded on giving birth.
The subjects also undergone the hormone test. "Since the ultrasound test can provide helpful clues without side effects, it is a preferable means of predicting IVF success," said Kwee. "The ultrasound test is a lot easier because it does not require multiple visits by a prospective patient", said fertility expert Marcelle Cedars at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center in the US.
"Women considering IVF might want to undergo both tests to assess whether IVF might work. They're both helpful, but neither of them is right 100% of the time. The reality is that lots of these tests are far from perfect", said David Adamson, president-elect of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.
"Even when these tests indicate a woman has a slim chance of IVF success, it does not necessarily mean it is impossible. You have to be careful with that diagnosis because it is devastating," said Phillip Patton at the Oregon Health and Science University Fertility Program in Portland, Oregon, US.