Success Stories

Case #1 - The Importance Of A Precise Diagnosis

A 33-year-old female patient with a seven-year history of primary infertility.

Her gynaecologist did a laparoscopy that showed mild endometriosis. All other fertility investigation results were normal. After six months of unsuccessful Clomid treatments, she was referred to an IVF centre. There, she underwent treatment with fertility injections and inseminations for four months, and proceeded to go through two IVF treatments that were unsuccessful.

When this patient was referred to Astra Fertility Clinic, we reviewed her previous investigations and a uterine septum was noted in her chart. This factor had not been considered significant by her previous treatment specialists.

The patient subsequently underwent surgery (uterine septum incision), and she had a spontaneous pregnancy within 6 months of the procedure.

Comment: Precise diagnosis is the key to treatment success. It is not always easy to pinpoint the cause of the infertility problem. At Astra Fertility Clinic, we are fortunate to have capable staff who can detect and correct uterine abnormalities using hysteroscopy in a simple day surgery procedure.

Case #2 - 2nd Opinions Are Valuable

A 29-year-old female patient with three years history of secondary infertility.

Her previous infertility specialist recommended IVF after the failure of several ovulation induction and insemination cycles. She was referred to Astra Fertility Clinic for a second opinion. At Astra, after reviewing her chart and going through her investigative cycle, a persistent elevation of her LH was noted, in spite of having regular menstrual cycles. At Astra, she underwent one cycle of down regulation with Lupron in combination with super-ovulation and intercourse and became pregnant.

Comment: Always get a second opinion if no clear diagnosis is given for your fertility problem. “Unexplained fertility”, while not uncommon, is an overstated diagnosis. Fertility treatment options are limited so it is important that patients understand the rationale behind their treatment. In this case, for a young patient with normal pelvis and normal tubes, superovulation was a better choice of treatment than IVF. Normal tubes work far better than any embryology laboratory. The problem impeding her achieving pregnancy was an ovulation dysfunction, as reflected by her persistently elevated LH. Once this problem was corrected, the patient conceived without assisted insemination.

Case #3 - There Is Always Hope

A 40-year-old female patient with 18 years history of primary infertility.

The patient was diagnosed with proximal bilateral tubal blockage. She failed one IVF cycle after only two eggs were retrieved. She was also a low responder to fertility drugs.

She went for a donor egg cycle in another fertility centre which failed after rescue ICSI!

At Astra, we did hysteroscopic tubal cannulation to overcome proximal obstruction of her tubes as the last resort, since she could no longer afford fertility treatments. She conceived on the following month with superovulation/insemination. She delivered a healthy male baby at 34 weeks gestation.

Comment: Tubal surgery can be very rewarding if the patient is properly selected and the procedure is done by a well-trained physician.