Surgical Solutions
A myth has been perpetuated
among people who are not educated in fertility issues
that if you are not able to get pregnant, that you can
go to a doctor and he can either perform surgery or
give you a pill to fix it. For a certain percentage
of infertile couples this is true, but for the vast
majority it is not that simple.
Surgical solutions are
generally confined to structural or mechanical problems
- there is something in the structure of the reproductive
organs which interferes with successful pregnancy. And
while this does happen, it is not the most common cause
of infertility.
Some structural or functional
problems are not surgically correctable either, or they
have low success rates. The reproductive organs are
fairly sensitive, perhaps only second to the nervous
system. They don't respond well to being messed with,
and scarring can be a major problem in some areas. This
means that success rates are high enough to hold the
promise of a solution, but not a certainty.
Surgical solutions are
also very expensive. If you have a documented history
of miscarriage, then surgery will likely be covered
by your insurance company. But surgery for anything
classed as infertility related will generally not be covered,
so you must bear the cost yourself. Surgery almost always
runs into the thousands of dollars.
It may also take much
time to actually arrive at a diagnosis that indicates
that surgery would be appropriate. So the overall expense
can be considerable, over a period of many months, or
even years.
For those whom surgery
is suitable, it can provide a miracle, if it works.
Success rates are increasing as knowledge, experience,
and techniques improve, so it is likely that more options
will be available in the future. Your chances of a successful
outcome are better with an experienced doctor than with
an inexperienced one.
Surgery seems the simple
solution to infertility, but because it is only appropriate
in a limited number of cases, and because the cost and
success rates are not always favorable, it will only
be a practical option for some people. For others, it
isn't what they need at all, or it is out of their reach.
If you cannot afford
surgery, and you know that you have a condition that
requires it, you are effectively moved into the category
of "uncorrectable problems", even though your
condition is technically not uncorrectable.
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