Like many other aspects of our lives, COVID-19 affected the treatments too. Read on to know how the pandemic affected fertility treatments for infertile couples.

Written by Editorial Team | Updated : November 1, 2021 10:31 AM IST

Covid-19 has been a stressful experience for all of us and has negatively impacted our way of life. Unfortunately, aspiring parents are not exempted from the impact of covid-19 in their quest towards parenthood through fertility treatments. The rising number of infertility cases of young couples in India has increased drastically, with the number of couples seeking fertility treatment in recent times higher than ever before. But how has Covid-19 impacted their chances of parenthood?

Understanding the causes for increasing infertility is critical to determine the impact of covid-19 on couples seeking diagnosis or treatment. In terms of identifying variables that contribute to decreased fertility among couples, some recent trends indicate that the average age for marriage has risen for couples due to a greater emphasis on education. Thus, the advanced age at which couples begin attempting to have children is responsible for a significant portion of the increase in infertility among couples. Off late there are a lot of elderly couples who have lost their child to covid and they want to try again.

This increase in age can be ascribed to the fact that couples prioritize financial independence over having children. It has also been shown that the average age for marriage in metropolitan settings has grown, which has shortened the time of increased fertility, particularly for women. Although males may not have the same reproductive constraints as women, they are also more likely to experience fewer problems when attempting to conceive when they are young. Lifestyle changes may also be a cause of lower fertility rates. I see at least 2-3 cases in a day with couples in the age group of 25 -45 years.

There are many varied advanced reproductive therapies such as in vitro fertilization or IVF, intra-cytoplasmic sperm injections, oral hormonal pills, or intrauterine fertility injections that increase fertilization chances. These treatments are considered after the couple has undergone testing and has been diagnosed with certain levels of infertility. Further, because of advancements in technologies used in reproductive therapy, procedures now have higher success rates. For example, IVF success rates of approximately 10% in 1990 have risen to 50%-60% today.

Despite these encouraging statistics, pandemic-induced intermittent lockdowns enforced following the first and second waves of the pandemic have affected aspiring couples and have restricted their options for treatments. Specialists have also seen a decrease in the number of people seeking treatment because of the increasing costs of both the procedures and keeping with the safety regulations that must be followed as per government Covid-19 regulations. These new regulations also add extra expense to the treatment. The other consequence of the pandemic has also resulted in many losing jobs and taking pay cuts that do not allow them to access these expensive reproductive therapy procedures. The sudden decrease in income has hindered many couples who would have otherwise undergone these procedures to forgo their chance for the immediate future.

Since most of these procedures require consistent treatment across the woman's menstrual cycles for adequate success, both physicians and patients are becoming increasingly unwilling to engage in these procedures in the face of uncertainty. In addition, patients and doctors were also afraid to begin these procedures, some of which needed general anaesthesia, for fear of testing positive for Covid-19, especially when patients have co-morbidities or are immunocompromised.

In such cases, most fertility clinics and specialists encourage patients to begin fertility treatment only after taking both doses of the vaccinations available and then begin more invasive treatments for their safety.

(The article is contributed by Dr Shivani Sachdev Gour, Infertility Specialist at SCI IVF Hospital in New Delhi)

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Coping With Coronavirus: Here's How The Pandemic Disrupted Fertility Treatments - TheHealthSite