Michelle Obama’s IVF Experience Helps Strike Down a Common Myth About Infertility

From Prevention

In her memoir she explains that she and Barrack decided to undergo IVF. She self-administered her fertility shots alone, to help speed up the process as her “sweet, attentive husband” was at the state legislature, “leaving me largely on my own to manipulate my reproductive system into peak efficiency.”

What is IVF?

In brief, IVF is a process through which multiple eggs are produced in a woman’s monthly reproductive cycle through the use of injection medications which stimulate the ovaries, says Nina Resetkova, MD, MBA, Reproductive Endocrinologist, Boston IVF and Instructor at Harvard Medical School. Once the eggs are harvested through a surgery called an egg retrieval, they are combined with sperm in the laboratory to create embryos. The viable embryos are then cultured in a laboratory incubator and transferred back into the uterus to create the potential of pregnancy within the same reproductive cycle. “The process of harvesting numerous eggs and creating embryos helps to overcome the related decline in embryo quality, allowing for the selection of the best embryos with the highest potential to create pregnancy,” she explains.

While IVF was definitely available two decades ago, it has become more popular in recent years, as it is more readily available (with more insurance companies covering it) and also more effective, according to Dr. Resetkova, due to new technologies and laboratory standardization.

Do women of all ages get IVF?

“We recommend women under 35 seek evaluation after 1 year of trying for pregnancy and women over 35 after 6 months of trying for pregnancy, in order to capture the best likelihood of IVF success, which is age related,” she explains.

What causes of infertility in women?

Dr. Resetkova explains that various factors can contribute to the inability to conceive and carry a baby to full term, even for younger women. These include patients with irregular menses due to causes like polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), fallopian tube disease, complex medical problems or have a history of many abdominal surgeries.

More recently, IVF has also been used to help couples who are at risk for a child with a genetic disease, such as Tay Sachs, adds Zev Williams, MD, PhD, Chief of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at Columbia University Fertility Center. It can also be helpful for those who are carriers of genes that could result in the child being at increased risk for cancer (such as BRCA), so they can have healthy children and not pass on cancer genes.