About 1 in every 8 women struggle with infertility. For women and couples that are dealing with it, infertility can be a very gut-wrenching and emotional road to go down. Then if you throw in a worldwide pandemic, you might feel like all the odds are against you.
Millions of Americans have been struggling with the fact that most (if not all) infertility treatments and IVF have been put on hold in light of the coronavirus outbreak. At All About Women, we understand that infertility is a sensitive and important topic to discuss during this already difficult time.
Below, we’ll attempt to answer a few of the most commonly asked questions about infertility treatments during the coronavirus pandemic:
Should women stop all infertility treatments during the coronavirus pandemic?
The American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) released guidelines in March surrounding IVF demand for infertility treatments during the pandemic, asking most people not to continue treatments. If you’re in the middle of a treatment cycle, ASRM says you can finish treatment—as long as the clinic is able to follow CDC social distancing and PPE guidelines.
If you have not started treatment yet, ASRM is asking you to wait. There are 2 main reasons for this request:
- It lessens the spread of the coronavirus by suspending close contact with patients and doctors that are not emergent, and
- There are still a lot of unknowns surrounding how the coronavirus affects pregnancy and the unborn baby.
Should women get pregnant at all during the coronavirus pandemic?
If a couple decides to get pregnant without the help of IVF in their own home, this differs some from IVF because they only potentially share the virus with each other and not a large medical team.
The risk that a woman takes getting pregnant right now is that the CDC does not have enough data to say for certain what kind of impact the coronavirus has on pregnancy and the unborn baby. It appears that the virus is not transferred from the mother to the fetus, but since COVID-19 is so new, only one study has been done so far.
Am I going to miss my chance to get pregnant if I pause my infertility treatments?
Understandably, many women are concerned about pausing their infertility treatments during the coronavirus outbreak because every month counts when you’re dealing with infertility.
While we can’t say for certain, if you’re under 35-40 years old, you’ll still likely be able to pick up infertility treatments after a few months of pause and be just fine. If you’re in that older age bracket, though, waiting a few months could have a major effect on whether or not you conceive.
Get an infertility workup done at All About Women
At All About Women, we evaluate women and couples who are having infertility problems and do a workup to figure out possible causes. We had temporarily put those on hold when the coronavirus outbreak first hit, but we are happy to say that we have resumed these workups and all other gynecological visits at this time.
If you’re having issues with infertility, please contact our office today to schedule an appointment.