Infertility

Couple's Infertility

Although the number of couples unable to have children is fairly large, infertility is still a private issue. A perfect relationship in many aspects can greatly suffer when the couple does not have a child. Couples who can not get pregnant in general resort to their family doctor for advice and guidance – and sometimes to medical specialists for specific treatments.

A modern fertility clinic offers a wide range of advanced treatments, which are generally difficult to understand as well as (sometimes) worrisome. There are also other important aspects to bear in mind: costs, necessary time for treatment, frustration, anxiety. All those aspects raise questions which few of us are able to answer directly or immediately, and all of them require advice from a specialist – particularly those related to the most adequate forms of treatment and the possibilities of success.

Choosing a certain treatment will depend on the type (or cause) of infertility revealed by studying the patient's specific case. However, all treatments have something in common: the ability to help nature prepare eggs and sperm cells, so that they have higher chances of fusion and fertilization, forming an embryo and, consequently, a healthy pregnancy. For that reason, those treatment techniques are collectively known as "assisted conception".


The Size of the Problem

A normal fertile couple in their 20's, who has regular sexual relationships, has each month one chance out of four to conceive a baby. That means that about nine every ten couples trying to have a child will get pregnant within a year. However, one out of ten will not succeed, and those couples are considered subfertile or infertile. (In this material, as in everyday life, the term "infertility" will apply to both cases). Infertility is usually defined by physicians as the inability to conceive after at least one year of trying. Many "infertile" couples, however, can be helped by assisted conception treatments.

Before couples resort to assisted conception, there are other searches and treatments that can also help; and besides, many patients already in fertility programs get pregnant naturally, after many years trying to by means of those treatments.


Evaluating Causes

Searches and inquiries done by a family doctor or a specialized clinic, in many cases, can indicate the possible cause of infertility. Only about 20 per cent of the cases remain inexplicable – and even those cases can be successfully treated. The woman is responsible for the couple's infertility in about 40 per cent of the cases, and the man is responsible for the other 40. The necessary exams to determine specific causes will evaluate ovulation, quality of Fallopian tubes, and hormone levels in women, as well as the production of sperm cells (count, motility and morphology) in men.