Some of the diagnosed problems related with male infertility are now curable with both surgical and non-surgical procedures. But there are certain cases where the treatment requires rigid operation. Nonetheless, both procedures are aiming at one goal, and that is to achieve pregnancy after the operation or treatment.
Common Male Infertility Problems
Male infertility problems can be acquired genetically, but at the same time, it can be developed in different stages of life as triggered by external factors. Genetically inherited infertility problems and congenital conditions are the cases where more complicated treatments are usually required. Some examples of these problems are absence of one testis (cryptochordism) and chromosome defects like Kleinfelter syndrome, a condition where an extra X chromosome is present in the male. The X chromosome will dominate the testosterone resulting to very limited production of sperm cells.
Another sperm-related problem is the oligospermia. This condition is characterized by insufficient number of sperm counts during ejaculation. Remember that sufficient number of sperm cells is necessary to achieve successful fertilization. If there is low sperm count during intercourse, it also reduces the fertilizing capability of the male.
On the other hand, for those sterile men who had vasectomy prior, they usually have dilemma of whether to undergo a reverse surgical or not. It happens usually among those men who are in remarriage stage of their lives. These men who have already undergone vasectomy usually assumed that vasectomy reversal is the only answer to their problem. Fortunately, vasectomy reversal is not the sole solution to relieve them from infertility problems.
Microsurgical Treatment for Infertility
Vasectomy reversal has been yielding a significantly low percentage of pregnancy, that is why some couples are hesitant of undergoing such medical operation. The rate of successful vasectomy reversal ranges only from 5% to 30% only.
Fortunately, one microsurgical procedure called microsurgical epididimal sperm aspiration (MESA) came to the picture. This process is considered as non-surgical treatment since it involves a more artificial touch of fertilization and conception. In this process, aside from a very small incision to male’s scrotum, no other surgery is required to fulfil the much wanted pregnancy of the couple.
In MESA, the sperm will be retrieved from the incision in the scrotum while the egg is retrieved from the female through the transvaginal egg retrieval process. The sperm and egg cells will be placed in an artificial medium in the in vitro fertilization laboratory. Despite low sperm count, the sperm aspiration process increases the fertilizing capability of the sperm cells to successfully penetrate the egg. Once embryo is formed, it will be inserted into the uterine cavity of the female to develop as full grown baby in nine months time.
Other alternative procedures to MESA are also developed by experts. These processes are called percutaneous epididimal sperm aspiration (PESA) and testicular sperm extraction (TESE). The former involves a needle that will acquire semen containing sperm cells while the latter extracts a small amount of tissue which also contains sperm cells. After extraction of sperm cells, fertilization will occur through intracytoplasmic sperm injection to fertilize the egg cell. Then, similar process of in vitro fertilization will be done to transport the embryo in female’s uterine cavity.
These processes might be less painful than the common vasectomy reversal, but it requires higher financial capacity. For those couple who are considering this alternative way of achieving pregnancy, it is best advised to assess first the necessity of this treatment over other possible options that can be done without compromising the desired result.