Personalization in in vitro fertilization treatments entails greater chances of achieving and gestating a pregnancy. In fact, proposing an adapted process for each patient increases the success rate and reduces the risks. The Spanish Society of Gynecology and Obstetrics indicates that, on the first attempt, women under 35 years of age have a probability between 40 and 45% of becoming pregnant thanks to these techniques; the older the patient, the lower the probability of becoming pregnant with her own eggs.
As the attempts increase, the probability of pregnancy increases. The Spanish Society of Gynecology and Obstetrics points out that the cumulative pregnancy rate, that is, the sum of the probabilities of pregnancy when transferring “fresh” or “vitrified” embryos, allows for a 50% success rate among patients under 35 years old. Specifically, more than 90% of patients get pregnant after 3 or 4 attempts. For this reason, personalization and accompaniment are the main tools to ensure the continuity of treatment.
The personalized assisted reproduction processes focus on knowing the situation of each patient and adjusting the treatments to her needs, managing to maximize success and reduce risks. Therefore, the characteristics of a patient determine the most convenient type of treatment. The various aspects to take into account are age, cause of sterility, time seeking pregnancy, number of previous treatments performed, body weight and smoking, among others. In the psychological field, stress and anxiety are also aspects that affect couples. In this process, feeling accompanied and well informed are two elementary pillars.
What are the customization steps to receive the best treatment?
The customization steps to receive the best treatment are the following: First, the ovarian response must be assessed, because the greater the number of ovules, the more embryos will be fertilized. The next step is the selection of the stimulation protocol and, finally, defining the drugs to be used. Dr. MaríaJesúsSaiz, a gynecologist at Fertilab Barcelona, declares that “personalization has been the basis of treatments at Fertilab for 25 years, taking into account the training of professionals and what the patient wants”.
It is also essential to take the patient’s body into consideration. In this case, the protocol based on the natural cycle of women respects the normal process carried out by each female body to gestate. For example, the Assisted Reproduction.org portal relates this process with numerous benefits. Side effects are almost non-existent in cases in which hormonal treatment hardly needs to be administered, and both the financial expense and the emotional wear and tear are less. On the other hand, Dr. Federica Moffa, medical director of Fertilab Barcelona, determines that “the modified natural protocol is the most “patient and doctor friendly”, but it requires more care because we have to adapt to what the woman’s body is doing to do by itself”.
The choice of IVF technique is based on adapting this process to the responses offered by the patient herself. Among the options is egg donation. The data from the registry of the Spanish Fertility Society show that this treatment generates an evolutionary pregnancy rate of between 60-70% per cycle among patients over 40 years of age. Likewise, La Vega Hospital highlights that egg donation reaches 90% success after having completed two cycles. Therefore, the ability to adapt to the patient is of vital importance to achieve earlier success in egg donation cycles.
