Summary
- There are various reasons why woman are infertile ranging from unhealthy ovaries to thinner endometrium.
- HBOT helps in angiogenesis that ensures perfect health to the ovaries, eggs and the uterus.
- Healthy egg means, better fertilization and healthy uterus ensures better implanted embryo and it’s development into a baby.
- Chennai Hyperbaric Clinic is a part of Gunasekaran Hospital in T Nagar, Chennai which also hosts expert gynecologists and urologists.
- At Gunasekaran Hospitals, the odds of becoming a parent goes up by several times owing to our advanced and alternative treatment facilities.
Before we jump in to knowing how hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) can help a woman conceive, let us first understand what causes infertility in a woman.
What causes infertility in a woman?
- Improper development of eggs in a woman’s ovary.
- Irregular release of eggs by the ovaries due to various reasons such as PCOS.
- Thickness of endometrium (the inner lining of the uterus) to hold the egg and the embryo.
- Fibroids development
- Endometriosis
And many more..
When a woman is not able to conceive, the next thing they do is – seeing a gynecologist. The gynecologist then performs some tests to determine the cause of the problem and start the treatment based on the diagnosis.
When natural conception is not happening even after proper stimulation of ovaries and release of egg, the next option is to go for ‘IVF – InVitro Fertilization’. In IVF procedure, the egg is extracted from the woman’s body, fertilized with a sperm (in a lab) and then the fertilized egg is put back into the woman’s uterus. However, there is no guarantee that this process works because, once the embryo (fertilized egg) is put into the uterus, the inner lining of the uterus (endometrium) should be able to hold it and keep it in place for normal growth and development into a foetus and then a baby.
If the endometrium is thin and not able to hold the fertilized egg, miscarriage happens as the endometrium sheds.
How hyperbaric oxygen therapy can help in treating a woman’s fertility?
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy, HBOT is a process where a person is subject to inhale pure oxygen at a pressure above normal atmospheric pressure. (Typically, the pressure inside HBOT Chamber will be 2.0 to 3.0 times the normal atmospheric pressure). This is done in multiple sessions depending on the need.
Here is what happens in a person who undergoes hyperbaric oxygen therapy:
- Angiogenesis – Formation of new blood vessels from existing blood vessels. (Kind of growing new branches of blood vessels from existing larger ones). This helps blood reach further into areas/organs of the body where previous supply of blood was low.
- Supply of more oxygen to every organ, tissue, muscle of the body – As a lot of pure oxygen is inhaled, haemoglobin carries a lot of oxygen to all parts of the body resulting in better healing, growth and functioning of the organs. At the same time, oxygen also dissolves in plasma directly (doesn’t happen in normal conditions) and that oxygen also travels through the body.
Coming back to treating infertility of woman, what does HBOT does to the reproductive organs inside her body:
- Higher blood flows into the ovaries due to the regeneration of blood vessels. This results in release of egg with proper stimulation (in those where the egg doesn’t get released on time automatically).
- The egg, before getting released into the uterus, develops well inside the ovaries and the chromosomes inside it will be in good shape.
- The healthy egg will be in good health and ready to accept a sperm to fertilize.
- The endometrium develops better with the thickness that is necessary. This gives the endometrium the ability to hold the egg as well as the embryo in it’s position and the growth of the embryo continues.
- The embryo also develops well as per schedule.
Because of all these reasons, a woman who had difficulty in conceiving will have increased chances of getting pregnant after few sessions of HBOTherapy. If she is not able to conceive normally, HBOT increases the success rate of IVF Treament reducing the pain of undergoing multiple embryo implants and failures.
Chennai Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy is a part of Gunasekaran Hospitals, T. Nagar, Chennai. Gunasekaran Hospitals is a multi discipline clinic which hosts specialists in the areas of Urology, Andrology, Gynecology, Gastroenterology. If you have undergone IVF treatment elsewhere and faced several failures, you can pay in a visit to us and we can try improving the chances of getting you a baby with our advanced medical facilities