Department of Reproductive Medicine - Memorial Bahcelievler Hospital Istanbul

About the Department of Reproductive Medicine at Memorial Bahcelievler Hospital Istanbul

The Department of Reproductive Medicine at the Memorial Bahçelievler Hospital Istanbul offers the full range of modern methods for the diagnostics and treatment of infertility. The department's medical team specializes in fertility treatment in women and men. The couples with genetic pathologies in the family history are offered preimplantation genetic diagnosis, which helps to exclude genetic abnormalities in the embryo prior to its transfer to the uterine cavity. The department demonstrates excellent success rates in infertility treatment – pregnancy occurs in 65% of cases. Such a figure exceeds the average success rate of fertility treatment in the world, which contributes to the prestige and huge credit of trust in patients from Turkey and other countries. The department is headed by Assoc. Prof. Dr. med. Özkan Özdamar.

The department has a progressive infrastructure for comprehensive diagnostics, which allows the doctors to detect factors of infertility in a particular couple. The main causes of infertility in women include endometriosis, fallopian tube obstruction, polyps, hormonal disorders, diminished ovarian reserve, etc. Should such impairments be detected, women will undergo effective drug therapy with the very latest drugs, laparoscopy and hysteroscopy. Male factor infertility includes insufficient sperm count or poor quality of semen, ejaculatory duct obstruction, hormonal problems, congenital testicular abnormalities, etc. The department also has many effective techniques for their elimination. Quite often, pregnancy does not occur due to the combination of female and male factors of infertility. In rare cases, infertility of unknown origin occurs when the cause of problems with conception cannot be determined.

As of today, the main internationally recognized treatment method for infertility is in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedure. The essence of IVF is fertilization outside the woman's body – eggs and sperm are extracted from the reproductive glands, fertilization takes place in the laboratory, after which the embryos are cultured and transferred into the uterine cavity of the expectant mother. IVF is a complex and multi-stage procedure, which requires both physical and mental preparation. It is noteworthy that the protocol of the procedure is individually selected for each couple. However, IVF consists of several mandatory stages.

The first stage of IVF is superovulation stimulation. To achieve the maturation of more eggs, a woman is prescribed daily injections of gonadotropins – hormones that lead to the maturation of several eggs at once, but not one, as in the usual menstrual cycle. The duration of this process can take from 2 to 3 weeks, depending on the characteristics of the organism. This is followed by a follicular puncture. The procedure is ultrasound-guided and performed under anesthesia. The doctor uses a special needle for aspiration of the follicular fluid and transfers the material to the embryologist. The embryologist selects the eggs for further fertilization.

The next stage is the fertilization of the eggs. Both eggs and sperm are placed in a special incubator, in a nutrient solution at a temperature of 37°C and high humidity. This is where fertilization takes place. In some cases, intracytoplasmic sperm injection is required. When performing this technique, the embryologist selects the highest quality sperm and directly injects it into the cytoplasm of the egg (for example, if the quality of ejaculate or eggs is low, cryopreserved eggs are used). This is followed by embryo culture, namely, monitoring of their development for the subsequent selection of the most promising embryo. Several days after fertilization, the embryo is transferred through the cervix to the uterine cavity using a catheter. The procedure is painless and does not require analgesia. After carrying out all of the above mentioned manipulations, a pregnancy test is performed.

It should be noted that it is not always possible to achieve pregnancy after the first IVF procedure. Nevertheless, the department's specialists have vast experience in their field of competence and use only current clinical protocols, which allow them to achieve success in IVF procedures in 65% of cases, while in many other countries of the world this figure does not exceed 35%. Thus, the department ranks among the leading IVF centers at the international level.

The department's range of medical services includes:

• In vitro fertilization (IVF)
• Intrauterine insemination
• Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI)
• Microsurgical epididymal sperm aspiration (MESA)
• Testicular sperm extraction (TESE)
• Testicular sperm aspiration (TESA)
• Percutaneous epididymal sperm aspiration (PESA)
• Cryopreservation of ovarian and testicular tissues, embryos
• Preimplantation genetic diagnosis
• Other assisted reproductive technologies for fertility treatment