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WHAT IS INFERTILITY

Infertility

”Infertility” is a disease, condition, or status characterized by any of the following:

  • The inability to achieve a successful pregnancy based on a patient’s medical, sexual, and reproductive history, age, physical findings, diagnostic testing, or any combination of those factors.
  • The need for medical intervention, including, but not limited to, the use of donor gametes or donor embryos in order to achieve a successful pregnancy either as an individual or with a partner.
  • In patients having regular, unprotected intercourse and without any known etiology for either partner suggestive of impaired reproductive ability, evaluation should be initiated at 12 months when the female partner is under 35 years of age and at six months when the female partner is 35 years of age or older.

  ASRM (2023)

DEFINITION

“''Infertility'' is a disease, condition, or status characterized by any of the following:
-The inability to achieve a successful pregnancy based on a patient's medical, sexual, and reproductive history, age, physical findings, diagnostic testing, or any combination of those factors.
-The need for medical intervention, including, but not limited to, the use of donor gametes or donor embryos in order to achieve a successful pregnancy either as an individual or with a partner.
-In patients having regular, unprotected intercourse and without any known etiology for either partner suggestive of impaired reproductive ability, evaluation should be initiated at 12 months when the female partner is under 35 years of age and at six months when the female partner is 35 years of age or older. ”

-ASRM

COVERAGE

“The Affordable Care Act of 2010 presented an opportunity to expand coverage for infertility to a much broader swath of the population... unfortunately, the Affordable Care Act did not expand access to infertility treatment except in the states that had infertility mandates before December 2011.”

-ASRM

INFERTILITY IN THE JEWISH COMMUNITY

The Jewish Community

Members of all denominations of Judaism will experience age-related decline in fertility equally. The age brackets will not vary, but diagnosis at presentation likely will.

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) and male factor infertility will be most prevalent among the Orthodox community due to higher rates of obesity, and because marriage and attempts at fecundity begin earlier in the Orthodox community than in other denominations.

Conversely, members of other denominations are more likely to experience egg-related issues as they often attempt pregnancy later than Orthodox women.

 

TREATMENT OPTIONS

In Vitro Fertilization (IVF)

In vitro fertilization (IVF) is a method of assisted reproduction that involves combining an egg with sperm in a laboratory dish. If the egg fertilizes and begins cell division, the resulting embryo is transferred into the woman’s uterus where it will hopefully implant in the uterine lining and further develop. IVF bypasses the fallopian tubes and is usually the treatment choice for women who have badly damaged or absent tubes.

– ASRM

Intrauterine Insemination (IUI)

Intrauterine insemination (IUI) is an office procedure in which prepared sperm cells are placed directly into a woman’s cervix or uterus to produce pregnancy, with or without ovarian stimulation to produce multiple oocytes.

-ASRM

Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI)

Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) is a micromanipulation procedure in which a single sperm is injected directly into an egg to attempt fertilization, used with male infertility or couples with prior IVF failure.

-ASRM

Assisted Reproductive Technologies

Assisted Reproductive Technologies are all treatments that include the handling of eggs and sperm and/or embryos. Some examples of ART are in vitro fertilization (IVF), gamete intrafallopian transfer (GIFT), pronuclear stage tubal transfer (PROST), tubal embryo transfer (TET), and zygote intrafallopian transfer (ZIFT).

-ASRM