Diagnosis of Infertility
Approach to diagnosing infertiltiy.
Before starting any form of infertility treatment, a medical examination of both partners is essential. During the initial consultation, we may recommend:
Blood Tests
These aim at checking essential reproductive hormones like AMH, TSH, Prolactin, FSH, LH, and Serum Insulin. In exceptional circumstances, we may require more sophisticated hormonal testing such as Cortisol, DHEAS, Testosterone and 5HT if required.
Laparoscopy & Hysteroscopy/ Hysterosalpingogram
Laparoscopy and Hysteroscopy are minimally invasive surgical procedures recommended only if some abnormality in the pelvic organs is suspected.
HSG (Hysterosalpingogram): An X-ray outlines the uterus and fallopian tubes. A dye is injected into the uterus. This will show the contour of the uterus and tell us if the tubes are patent or not.
Internal Examination & Vaginal Sonography
An ultrasound scan would help us establish the normalcy of the pelvic organs. A gynaecological checkup would give us additional information regarding the readiness of the uterus for pregnancy and help diagnose pathological conditions.
Sperm Testing
- Semen Analysis
Semen analysis is important to rule out male factor as a cause of infertility. A detailed analysis of the count, motility and morphology of the sperm is carried out along with other parameters. We follow the WHO (2010) criteria for assessing semen.
- Semen Analysis
- Sperm FISH
Sperm FISH is carried out to check if the sperm are genetically normal. Normal sperm are haploid (i.e they have only one set of chromosomes). This test will show us if the sperm are haploid or diploid.
- Sperm FISH
- Sperm DNA Fragmentation Index
Sperm DNA fragmentation index (DFI) is measured using the TUNEL method to check the percentage of sperm with broken DNA content. Breaks in the sperm DNA can cause slow growth of the embryos and miscarriage and also increases the time to pregnancy.