Due to current changes in society and work environment, an increasing number of women decide to have a child and face the motherhood path on their own despite not having a partner. There are several reasons such as personal, sentimental or professional issues that lead women to make this decision. Generally, the age is a common factor between them because they are all over 35 that is the moment in which they do not want to delay their biological clock anymore.
The model of a single-parent family is a trend in Spain, a thoughtful choice made by those women who decide to conceive without a partner through the aid of assisted reproduction. There is a clear increase in fertility techniques which are adapted to this option: according to Spanish Fertility Society approximately 20% of women visit assisted reproduction clinics to undergo treatments without a partner.
In some women certain doubts may arise on whether being a single mother can affect the baby somehow. The most important thing for a child is being surrounded by a stable, happy and loving environment which can be perfectly provided by a single mother.
Assisted reproduction techniques for single motherhood
Intrauterine Insemination with sperm donor
It is a simple fertility technique where the sperm of an anonymous donor selected from a sperm bank is injected into the uterus of the future mother through a special cannula. It is an easy and valid method due to the previous selection of the best quality sperm which allows offering a high chance of success.
In vitro fertilization
The sperm from a male donor and the eggs of the recipient woman are combined in a plate of a laboratory to create the embryos of best quality which will be subsequently transferred into the female uterus. Differently from the Intrauterine Insemination, the fertilization process does not take place in the female reproductive system but in the laboratory. The fertilization can be carried out through the conventional IVF or the ICSI technique (Intracytoplasmic sperm injection). After receiving a medical diagnosis and the assessment of a specialist, the best technique is established for each case. The ICSI improves the pregnancy rate thanks to the previous selection of the best sperm in the laboratory to be injected into the egg. So the insemination is straightly performed increasing the chances of achieving the pregnancy.
Egg donation
Due to different reasons, the motherhood is delayed and as the woman ages, the egg loses its ability to produce oocytes which are essential to achieve the pregnancy. IVF with egg donor relies on healthy and good quality oocytes which are donated by anonymous women and will be fertilized with partner’s sperm (or anonymous male donor). Thanks to the quality of donated eggs, this technique ensures high pregnancy rates for all those women who do not want to give up on their dream to have a family and choose to be single mothers.
