At ACRM, apart from IVF and IUI, we offer an array of assisted reproductive techniques as part of your fertility treatment in Singapore.
Assisted Reproductive Techniques in Singapore
Ovulation Induction
Once your fertility specialist has diagnosed the probable source of your fertility troubles, ovulation induction with fertility drugs (medication) may be recommended to help ovaries produce more eggs (oocytes). Your specialist may recommend attempts to conceive naturally or perform ovulation induction in conjunction with intrauterine insemination (IUI) to maximise the ratio between ovulating eggs to the number of sperms.
Ovulation induction may be recommended for the following conditions:
- Not ovulating or have long, irregular or infrequent cycles
- Diagnosed with hormonal problems
- Diagnosed with (PCOS) polycystic ovary syndrome
- Couples diagnosed with unexplained infertility
As ovulating women usually produce one mature egg during each 28 days cycle, your response during ovulation induction may differ. Your fertility specialist will closely monitor your response with ultrasound scans and bloodwork to ensure medication doses and follicle growth are optimal.
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Fertility Drug Treatment
Depending on the infertility diagnosis, your fertility specialist may suggest you to commence with a simple non-surgical treatment involving fertility drugs (medications), which may likely lead to a successful and healthy pregnancy.
Fertility drugs (medications) can be prescribed to treat your infertility causes or as part of assisted reproductive technologies (ART) such as IUI (Intrauterine Insemination) or IVF (In vitro Fertilization).
There are some typical instances where drug treatments may be recommended:
Ovulation Induction Hormone Treatment & Regulation Infertility Diseases Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT)
The use of fertility medication to stimulate egg development and induce release of the egg (ovulation). Your specialist may then recommend you to attempt to conceive naturally.
The use of hormonal drugs as part of a treatment regime to overcome infertility e.g. intrauterine Insemination (IUI), in vitro Fertilization (IVF) and Frozen Embryo Transfer (FET) procedures.
Drug treatment for various types of conditions causing infertility. e.g. hyperprolactinemia, polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS)
HRT is normally prescribed when a woman has gone through menopause and is unable to conceive. Fertility specialists encountering patients with premature ovarian insufficiency (POI) may prescribe HRT medication to cause the ovaries to release the last few eggs.
Surgical Fertility Treatments
If your comprehensive fertility screening reveals that your infertility is caused by a range of gynaecological conditions including pelvic adhesions, fibroids, polyps and congenital (birth) defects, you may require surgery. Our fertility specialists are skilled in restoring healthy conditions in the uterus and uterine cavity using minimally invasive/laparoscopic surgical techniques (gynae laparoscopy). These techniques result in shorter recovery times, enabling you to attempt to get pregnant sooner.
Minimally invasive surgery is considered the optimal approach for many such conditions and there will be lesser scar tissues formed.
Minimally invasive surgeries at ACRM include:
Laparoscopic Myomectomy Laparoscopic Ovarian Cystectomy Laparoscopic Endometriosis Surgery Bilateral Tuboplasty Polypectomy
Removal of fibroids (benign tumor composed of muscle tissue).
Removal of ovarian cysts (e.g dermoid, endometriotic).
Removal of some tissue, similar to endometrium, found in the pelvic cavity outside the uterus.
Surgical repair of damaged fallopian tubes to treat infertility.
During hysteroscopy, instruments inserted through the hysteroscope allow for the removal of uterine polyps.
Double Stimulation (DuoStim) Method
What is DuoStim?
Double stimulation (DuoStim) method is based on performing two hormonal stimulations and two oocyte (egg) retrievals, namely the follicular phase (FPS) and luteal phase (LPS) stimulations in the same ovarian cycle. Like that in a regular IVF treatment cycle, hormonal stimulation starts on day 2 or 3, leading to an oocyte retrieval. In a DuoStim treatment, this is followed by a second stimulation a few days later, so that follicles which did not grow enough during the first stimulation phase grow further and mature, which are then collected in the second oocyte retrieval.
What is the advantage of DuoStim?
DuoStim allows collection of an additional set of oocytes especially for poor responder patients. This method increases the number of collected oocytes several fold in some patients, resulting in an increased number of blastocysts and increased option to replace the best embryo(s) during the embryo transfer procedure.
All resulting embryos or blastocysts are frozen, the transfer will take place only during the next cycle when woman’s endometrium is ready. DuoStim approach may increase the cumulative live birth rate.
This combined FPS and LPS with a freeze-all strategy may be applied more extensively in future, and may be more cost-effective.
Is DuoStim suitable for me?
DuoStim is recommended for:
- Women that require urgent collection of oocytes, including those with cancer or other medical conditions
- Women of advanced maternal age (> 38 years), low ovarian reserve or younger women with premature ovarian failure
- Women with Anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH) levels lower than 1.0 ng/mL
- Poor responders to ovarian stimulation