The cervix plays an active role in guiding sperm from the vagina to the upper reproductive tract. During a woman’s reproductive age, a normal cervix can secrete some thin, smooth and elastic mucus to protect sperm from acidic erosion in the vagina. Congenital malformation or damage to the mucus-secreting cells will reduce the ability of the cervix to secrete mucus, making it difficult or impossible for sperm to pass through the cervix and reach the uterus. ①Cervical injury. Cervical damage is usually caused by simple surgical procedures such as dilation and curettage, induced abortion, or the examination and treatment of exfoliated cells. These surgeries can damage the mucus-producing cells or cervical tissue, and if there is extensive scarring, the cervix can become rough and narrow. If your cervix is not functioning properly for any of the above reasons, it can be restored to normal by gently stretching it. ②Hormonal reasons. Before ovulation, due to the increase in estrogen, the cervical glands secrete some fertility mucus. If the cervix is not damaged and its structure is normal, then the absence of mucus or the low amount of mucus may be due to a lack of estrogen receptors in the cells, or because the receptors require more estrogen to stimulate mucus secretion. There are theories that some receptors require greater amounts of estrogen. ③Hormonal treatment of cervical lesions. If there is no obvious physiological reason for low mucus secretion, and medical records show that the patient is ovulating normally, then using some hormonal drugs to increase the ovulation cycle may increase mucus secretion. Because the egg follicles will enlarge due to stimulation of follicle-stimulating hormone, these hormone drugs can help secrete estrogen to stimulate the cervix. If cervical cells require only a small amount of estrogen to function, improving ovulation could potentially improve mucus production.
If neither surgery nor hormone therapy can restore the cervix to normal function, intrauterine insemination can be used to inject sperm directly into the uterus without passing through the cervix. When the sperm content in semen is low or the cause of infertility is difficult to identify, intrauterine insemination is often used.
Currently intrauterine insemination requires the man to provide a semen sample several hours before fertilization. The sample is \”washed,\” which means the sperm is separated from the semen and concentrated. The concentrated sperm is then injected into the uterus through a catheter.
Most hospitals will perform intrauterine insemination once or twice per cycle. The first sperm injection is usually just before expected ovulation, and the second injection is usually 24 hours after ovulation. You can use ovulation test strips to test when luteinizing hormone appears in large amounts to determine the time of ovulation. Ultrasound can sometimes be used to detect whether the follicles in the ovaries have been emptied or are preparing to ovulate.
The success rate of intrauterine insemination is relatively small. If a patient under 40 years old is infertile due to cervical lesions, the success rate of artificial insemination is 3% to 7%. If 4 to 6 cycles of treatment are carried out, the pregnancy rate is 10% to 25%. The success rate of artificial insemination for patients over 40 years old is only 50% of that for patients under 40 years old. For those patients with unexplained infertility, or infertility caused by the male partner, the pregnancy rate is even lower, only 2% to 5% per cycle.
The four artificial methods to help fertilization are: intracervical artificial insemination, intrauterine artificial insemination, intracervical artificial insemination combined with hyperovulation (using gonad-stimulating drugs to stimulate ovulation) and intrauterine artificial insemination Combined with ultrarapid ovulation. Intrauterine insemination combined with gonadal stimulation of ovulation resulted in the highest pregnancy rate (33%). Generally, 4 cycles of treatment are carried out before pregnancy occurs. The method with the lowest pregnancy rate (only 10%) is intracervical insemination. After 4 cycles of treatment, the other two methods, intrauterine insemination and intracervical insemination combined with superovulation, resulted in pregnancy rates of 18% and 19%, respectively. There were more than 230 couples in each treatment group.
Intrauterine insemination is a relatively low-tech and low-cost method, so it is best to try it before trying other expensive methods.
This article is provided by Baidu Reading. It is excerpted from \”The Clear \”Conception\” Plan\” Author: Sun Jianqiu and Xie Yingbiao