In recent years, the solutions available to the problem of male, female, idiopathic or couple infertility have become increasingly effective and less traumatizing. In examining them, however, we cannot forget the controversial law 40 of 2004, which in Italy imposed severe and restrictive limitations on their use, much more than what is expected in other states.
Ovarian and testicular stimulation
It is carried out through specific drugs (generally hormones or their derivatives) to be taken orally or intramuscularly.
Medicines act by stimulating ovulation in women and the production of spermatozoa in men; their usefulness and opportunity for use varies in relation to the causes of low fertility or sterility; it can also be done in Italy. The possible risks in the woman reside in an "ovarian hyperstimulation, which manifests itself with possible multiple pregnancies and gastrointestinal disorders.
Surgical Techniques
They are necessary, for example, to eliminate small varices in the testicles or alterations of various kinds of the female genital system (such as uterine polyps, submucosal fibroids, adhesions in the uterine cavity, cysts in the ovaries, endometers, etc.). Can also be performed in Italy without any particular limitation.
Assisted reproduction techniques
They are different and not all fully viable in Italy
Artificial insemination
it is the simplest system of assisted reproduction, successfully tested by Lazzaro Spallanzani on a dog as early as 1777. After this date, its use was confined to the veterinary field for a long time - to select and improve breeds while avoiding sexually transmitted diseases - although in the second half of the nineteenth century it had already been tested on mankind.
Artificial insemination consists in depositing the male semen in the woman's uterus, with the help of a small cannula to be inserted into the cervical orifice. The semen can come from the partner, in this case we speak of homologous insemination, or from an anonymous donor (heterologous insemination); this last path is taken when the homologous path is not feasible, for example due to lack of spermatozoa, incompatibility of the couple's blood group, immunological problems and risk of genetic alterations in the male offspring. In Italy heterologous artificial insemination remained prohibited until to 2014; up to that date, it was possible to create an embryo only when the sperm and egg came from the same couple that requested assisted fertilization. However, for obvious reasons related to the quality of the heterologous sperm, the use of heterologous fertilization guarantees higher success rates than homologous insemination.
In various European countries there are so-called "sperm banks" in which donors, appropriately selected and checked to ascertain the absence of diseases and the quality of their sperm, deposit the semen, which is then stored in special containers immersed in liquid nitrogen. at a temperature of -196ºC.
The choice of the sperm sample to be used in artificial insemination is performed on the basis of the characteristics of the donor, such as the compatibility of the blood group and some physical peculiarities, such as height, hair and eye color, biotype, etc.
Heterologous artificial insemination can have important implications on the psyche of the couple and in particular on that of the male partner, who - in a certain sense - could feel excluded from pregnancy. This technique should therefore represent the result of a scrupulously considered choice, in such a way that the quality of sexual and relationship life is strengthened rather than worsened. Hence the importance of the adjective assisted - rather than artificial - alongside the word fertilization; assisted because the couple must analyze, with the help of experts in the field of human psychology, all the possible problems deriving from this choice and make their decisions with the greatest awareness and serenity possible.
Other articles on "Sterility Cure"
- Female infertility, the role of age and mechanical factors
- Sterility
- Male infertility: oligospermia and azoospermia
- Causes of Male Infertility
- Female infertility, ovulation disorders
- In vitro fertilization
- Intratubal transfer of gametes
- Infertility: what cure?
.jpg)
