Researchers have revealed that two common fertility treatments, one which works by stimulating egg production in ovaries and the other which involves injecting sperm directly into the womb, have little or no effect on conception rates.
“These interventions, which have been in use for many years, are unlikely to be more effective than no treatment,” ‘The Daily Telegraph’ quoted lead researcher Prof Siladitya Bhattacharya of Aberdeen University as saying.
In fact, the researchers have based their findings on trials of 580 Scottish women who have fertility problems and were also trying to get pregnant over two years -- they found that 17 per cent of those who did not have any kind of medical intervention conceived over that time.
However, only 14 per cent of the couples taking Clomid group of drugs got pregnant. And that figure was only slightly higher, 23 per cent, for those who had insemination -- the findings have been published in the‘British Medical Journal.
According to the researchers, both treatments would have to have a much greater impact on pregnancy rates to prove that they were any more effective than actually having no treatment at all.
Also writing in the BMJ, fertility experts Yacoub Khalaf and Tarek El-Toukhy said: “As a direct result of the lack of evidence, many couples with unexplained infertility endure (and even request) expensive, potentially hazardous, and often unnecessary treatments."