There is a growing demand for treatments for conceiving. While it may come as easy for some people, there has been a growing number of people who is struggling to start a family of their own and much of this are attributed to our modern stressful and hectic lifestyles. What are some of the available options we have to deal with this problem? Are they easily available for the mass?
In the previous article, we went into the art of conceiving and we see increased struggles for people to have children. With the increased consumer interest in fertility options, the number of options have grown in recent years.
Fertility Bloom
Thanks to modern medical science, a number of infertility treatments are currently available to help you conceive, including the following:
Fertility drugs- oral medication that stimulates ovulation. However, bear in mind it does comes with negative side effects.
High-tech assisted reproductive technology (ART)- ART procedures involve surgically removing eggs from a woman’s ovaries, combining them with sperm in the laboratory, before returning them to the woman’s body. One of the most effective and common type of ART is the common term, we know as the IVF, In vitro fertilization.
Intrauterine insemination (IUI) - a fertility treatment that involves placing sperm inside a woman's uterus to facilitate fertilization. The goal of IUI is to increase the number of sperm that reach the fallopian tubes and subsequently increase the chance of fertilization.
Surgery- Depending on the issue, it may call for corrective actions via surgery. For an example, there is uterine surgery that can correct blockages and abnormal tissue growth and remove scar tissue and fibroids. Surgery can also help repair an abnormally shaped uterus.
Oocyte cryopreservation- Egg freezing allows women to preserve their own eggs, when they are young and healthy, to help them achieve pregnancy later.
While there are more and more options, the prohibitively high costs of these treatments are making it almost not available to consumers. While the absolute number is generally smaller, we see a growing pick up rates. According to the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology, in 2017 (based on the most recent data available), over 72,000 babies were born from approximately 263,000 cycles of assisted reproductive technologies (ART) performed during that year.
Conceiving is an art on its own. The bodily functions and systems being in good condition in both the male and the female, all of which must happen in the right sequence and at the right time. bodily functions and systems being in good condition in both the male and the female, all of which must happen in the right sequence and at the right time.
With this growing demand, Investors want to participate in this growing space: By some estimates, the market for fertility solutions is growing by 25 percent per year.
Egg-freezing startups such as Extend Fertility and Kindbody, which launched in 2016 and 2018 respectively, each landed $15 million in 2019. Natalist, a fertility-focused supplement company, obtained $5 million in seed funding in just a month after its September 2019 launch; and fertility hormone testing company, Modern Fertility (which launched in 2017) received $15 million funding in June. This influx of capital will allow the fledgling businesses to expand their offerings and extend their reach in the coming year.
“Infertility is much more out in the open now; it’s not [viewed as] a dirty thing anymore.” —Norbert Gleicher, MD, FACOG
The uptick in interest and investment for fertility services is indicative of a societal shift in our views on infertility, says Dr. Gleicher. “Infertility is much more out in the open now; it’s not [viewed as] a taboo anymore,” he says. Indeed, celebrities including Chrissy Teigen and Michelle Obama have been outspoken about their own struggles to conceive. That awareness has trickled down to the mass, as more educational platforms provide safe spaces for people to share their experiences with infertility.
Fertility treatments still remain extremely expensive by anyone’s standards. But we are expecting these solutions to become more and more accessible to the mass in time to come.
Tags: #ivr #pregnant #art, #technology, #eggsfreezing, #healthtech
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