Fertility Surgery Treatments
At Michigan Reproductive Medicine, our physicians may recommend and perform fertility surgeries primarily to correct anatomic defects that may be impairing your ability to conceive. By contrast, non-surgical fertility treatments use fertility drugs to treat infertility caused by biochemical abnormalities, e.g. hormone imbalances.
Could Fertility Surgery Help My Infertility?
Our physicians will help you determine whether non-surgical or surgical infertility treatments are best for your individual case. As always, getting a proper diagnosis should be your first step. The easiest way to accomplish this is to call MRM at (248) 593-6990 or click here to make an appointment. We will help you arrange a consultation with one of our fertility specialists, who can give you a comprehensive evaluation.
Why is MRM at the Pinnacle of Surgical Fertility Treatment in Michigan and Northern Ohio?
Our MRM physicians are recognized leaders in highly skilled surgical and micro-surgical techniques used to correct these conditions and use minimally invasive techniques whenever possible.
Which Conditions Require Surgery?
For women, some common situations where surgery is required include the removal of uterine fibroids, polyps, and congenital malformations of the uterus such as a septum, pelvic adhesions, and endometriosis tissue.
For men, surgical treatments include vasectomy reversal, varicocele repair, a procedure treating varicose veins in the scrotum, and surgical collection of sperm from the testicle if no sperm is present in the semen.
MRM’s fertility specialists offer a variety of innovative, advanced fertility surgeries to address your unique situation.
Infertility Laparoscopy for Diagnosis and Treatment of Tubal Factor Infertility
Laparoscopy is considered the gold standard for the detection and treatment of tubal disease and should be considered in any patient with risk factors for tubal disease, such as a history of sexually transmitted disease, pelvic inflammatory disease, previous pelvic surgery, or appendectomy.
Although tubal reversal (reversing a previous tubal ligation sterilization procedure) was common practice several decades ago, with the advances in IVF therapy resulting in improved pregnancy rates and minimal invasion of a woman’s body, tubal reversal surgery is requested much less frequently. We provide laparoscopic tubal reversal surgery as an alternative to IVF therapy.
Laparoscopy is a minimally invasive surgical procedure that allows the surgeon to both view and treat anatomic abnormalities by using a very small fiber-optic lens inserted through a small incision in the navel. Additional small incisions are made to allow the use of other specialized surgical instruments during the procedure. Because laparoscopy lets the surgeon perform exploratory surgery to reveal pelvic defects, as well as perform surgical excision to treat these defects – all in one minimally invasive operation – it has become an invaluable part of infertility diagnosis and treatment.
How is Laparoscopy Performed?
For an infertility laparoscopy procedure, your surgeon will:
- Administer general anesthesia
- Insert the laparoscope, which is a bright, lighted fiber optic tube, through a small abdominal incision; surgical instruments that may be required are also inserted.
- Fill the abdomen with carbon dioxide gas. This causes the abdominal cavity to expand, giving your surgeon a clear view of the reproductive organs.
- Evaluate the outside of the uterus and fallopian tubes for anomalies and repair them surgically.
- Laparoscopy is done during the early part of the menstrual cycle to avoid disruption of possible early pregnancy.
Laparoscopy is Useful for Diagnosis and Treatment (Removal) of:
- Endometriosis lesions
- Ovarian cysts
- Uterine fibroids
- Tubal adhesions
- Hydrosalpinx
Advantages of Laparoscopy over Traditional Abdominal Surgery (Laparotomy)
- Many diseases and abnormalities of the abdomen and pelvis can be safely treated using laparoscopy.
- Special laparoscopic instruments allow the surgeon to incise, biopsy, cauterize, or vaporize problem areas without the need for a large abdominal incision.
- Smaller incisions mean less discomfort and pain and reduced recovery time. Laparoscopic patients typically can return to normal activities after only two to three days of recovery.
- MRM has affiliate specialty surgeons with great experience and skill performing minimally invasive Robotic Assisted Laparoscopy using small incisions in the abdomen and the DiVinci robotic technology. This offers particular advantage with removal of uterine fibroid tumors and other conditions that have traditionally required surgical access through large abdominal incisions.
What is Hysteroscopy?
Hysteroscopy is a surgical procedure used for looking within the uterine cavity (diagnostic hysteroscopy) and performing necessary sampling (biopsies) and corrections (operative hysteroscopy). It is not laparoscopy (laparoscopy uses abdominal incisions). However, hysteroscopy may be performed in conjunction with laparoscopy.
In office hysteroscopy requires no anesthesia, and it takes about 15 minutes to view the cervical canal and uterine cavity with a narrow 3 mm flexible, fiberoptic tube. The view is as clear as looking underwater in a swimming pool through goggles.
Operative hysteroscopy may be performed in the office with mild sedation or in a formal operative room with general anesthesia. It consists of gently dilating the canal of the cervix and inserting a narrow viewing straw-like instrument (hysteroscope) directly through the canal into the uterine cavity. Hysteroscopy allows for direct and clear visualization of the cavity and enables treatment of abnormalities such as polyps, fibroids, projections of the uterine wall, and certain defects of the uterine architecture such as the uterine septum.
How Can I Find Out More Information on MRM’s Fertility Surgery Procedures?
Call us at (248) 593-6990 to speak to our specially-trained fertility consultants. They can give you further information about all the options we provide for fertility surgeries and schedule a consultation with one of our physicians and an affiliated surgical specialist. You may also click here to contact us.
