Intralipid infusion therapy is now used by many IVF specialists as a treatment for boosting IVF success rates, reducing the risk of miscarriage.
Nowadays, in vitro fertilisation (IVF) appears to be the most popular among fertility treatments. That is mainly due to its effectiveness and its relative simplicity as a medical procedure that couples can follow without changing much of their daily routine.
Intralipid infusion therapy is thought to protect the cell membranes
However, there are some couples who do not seem able to achieve pregnancy and deliver a healthy baby even though they have tried IVF several times. There might be several reasons underlying such IVF failures, including the age of the female and/or male partner, inherited genetic diseases, womb structure abnormalities, hormonal irregularities and, as seen quite often these past few years, immune system malfunction.
The latter, is based on the fact that a woman’s uterus might be hostile to receiving embryos transferred during the last step of the IVF treatment. There is evidence indicating that some cells of the immune system called natural killer cells (NK) could attack to the embryos recognizing them as foreign, causing them to fail implantation.
A quite promising therapy, called intralipid infusion therapy, could compromise the natural killer cells activity. In 2011, Dr George Ndukwe of the Care fertility clinic conducted a trial of the therapy on 50 women who have had several IVF failures. Approximately 50% of treated women got pregnant compared to 9% of women who got pregnant without receiving the intralipid infusion therapy. However, according to experts, a larger scale study is needed for confirming these data.
Intralipid infusion therapy is based on a blend of soya oil, egg yolk and glycerine and is thought to protect the cell membranes from the natural cell killers’ attacks. It is usually provided in tandem with IVF or IUI rather than as an alternative. It is a relatively low cost therapy, with no side effects that could increase success rates for women who have experienced implantation failures or early miscarriage/s.
Have you tried intralipid infusion therapy, or consider trying it in tandem with your IVF treatment?
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