Infertility Causes & Treatments

Being diagnosed with infertility can be a frightening and emotionally tough time for you and your partner. You should know that you’re not alone, however: up to 12% of child-bearing age adults may find themselves faced with infertility issues at some point. And, with advancing science and technology, a diagnosis of infertility does not necessarily mean that you are destined to never have children.

Causes

There are a wide variety of factors that contribute to infertility. One quarter of couples experiencing infertility are actually facing a combination of these factors.

Male Infertility

• Male infertility may be due to low sperm count, sperm that aren’t being released from the testicles, or sperm that aren’t healthy enough to make their way to the women’s uterus. A number of things can contribute to these problems, including: smoking, infections in the testicles, previous scarring, chemotherapy, age, drug use, genetic issues, heat exposure, surgery or accident, and environmental toxins.

Female Infertility

• Just as male infertility can come from a number of causes, female infertility can be quite complex. Problems with egg production, eggs being unable to get to the uterus, or problems with the egg attaching to the uterus can all be to blame. These issues can result from a number of factors, including: being overweight, chronic health problems, stress, clotting disorders, poor diet, tumors, past STDs, alcohol use, ovarian cysts or polycystic ovary syndrome, or pelvic inflammatory disease.

Treatments

The outlook for couples who have had problems with infertility is not as bad as you might expect. About 20% of couples who were previously considered infertile end up conceiving without intervention. More than half of all infertile couples become pregnant after receiving treatment.

Intrauterine Insemination: This treatment, where the doctor or nurse injects sperm into the uterus, can help infertility caused by low sperm count or problems with sperm reaching the egg. Intrauterine insemination has been shown to be effective in inducing pregnancy in cases with varying causes of infertility.

Ovulation Induction: These treatments focus on problems with the female partner’s ovulation. One such treatment is Clomiphene Citrate, a medication that is taken early in a woman’s cycle to cause the release of ovulation-inducing hormones. Another option is Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH), an injected medication that also induces ovulation. With both of these treatments, the rates of twins and multiple pregnancies is high.

In Vitro Fertilization (IVF): IVF can be used to treat infertility caused by a variety of factors. In IVF, a woman’s eggs are removed from her ovaries (or taken from a donor), fertilized with sperm outside the body, and grown into embryos. These embryos are then placed inside the woman’s uterus. In IVF, women are given FSH, the ovulation-inducing hormone mentioned above, in order to remove multiple eggs from her ovaries at once. Once these embryos are fertilized and placed in the woman’s uterus, the woman takes progesterone to help increase the chances of the pregnancy continuing.

IVF results in pregnancy in less than 50% of women who attempt it who are under the age of 40. The risk of multiple pregnancies is quite high with IVF, with over 1/3 of these pregnancies resulting in twins.

Surgical Treatments: Surgery can be an effective treatment for physical gynecological problems in the female partner. Surgery can be used to remove endometriosis, where cells block the uterus, or scarring inside the reproductive organs from previous STDs. While effective in removing the existing scarring, skin adhesions can reoccur, and tubal pregnancies may still happen, even after surgery. Skin polyps or fibroids interfering with fertility can also be removed during an outpatient surgical procedure.

Surrogacy: If a woman is unable to become pregnant after IVF or other treatments, a surrogate mother may be used to carry her embryos to term.

Sources:

Infertility. (2010) University of Cincinnati.

Infertility. (2011) Drexel Medicine Center For Women’s Health.