It is believed that approximately 1/3 of all causes of infertility can be solely attributed to a female factor, 1/3 are male factor infertility and the remaining third represents a combination of both male and female factors. One can imagine that a very fertile woman could mitigate some degree of her partner's infertility and vice-versa.
Your physical condition could make the difference between successfully achieving a live birth and going through years of frustration of unfulfilled dreams. Optimizing your health can have a considerable impact on the probability of a successful pregnancy.
The three groups of the most common causes of infertility are:
- Male Factor Infertility
The diagnosis of male factor infertility must be made with consideration of the female factors of infertility.
For most men, there is no truly reliable test to assess their fertility potential. The diagnosis of male infertility is often arrived at by excluding all possible female infertility factors.
Fortunately, we can now overcome all but the most severe forms of male factor infertility. For the most part, whether you succeed in getting pregnant does not depend on the presence or absence of male factor infertility.
- Ovulation and Egg Quality Factors
The vast majority of women, whose menstrual cycles are between 21 and 35 days, ovulate. Women with shorter or longer cycles typically do not ovulate. There is a broad selection of medications to allow these anovulatory women to produce eggs.
Whether you succeed in getting pregnant does not depend on the presence or absence of ovulation in an untreated cycle.
A woman's egg quality refers to the level of high quality eggs that are genetically and biologically capable of producing a healthy baby. This egg quality factor depends primarily on the female partner's age. There is no known medical treatment to improve the quality of the eggs.
A woman must have biologically perfect eggs in order to achieve a pregnancy that will go on to a live birth. If the ratio of perfect eggs to biologically suboptimal eggs in a woman is markedly diminished, her chance of having her own genetic child is markedly diminished as well.
The egg quality is the decisive factor in a successful treatment.
- Can They Meet? (The Passage Factor)
In a spontaneous conception, eggs and sperm meet inside the Fallopian tubes. It is quite rare for the sperm not to be able to rapidly arrive in the Fallopian tubes after ejaculation or insemination even if their motility is "sluggish".
The eggs, on the other hand, need at least one healthy Fallopian tube to be picked up after ovulation and brought inside the tube to meet the waiting sperm. There are several conditions (i.e., tubal blockages, pelvic adhesions, endometriosis) which can make it difficult if not impossible for this to happen.
Fortunately, again, it is possible to bypass the role of the Fallopian tubes altogether.
Where does the receptivity of the mother's body and that of her uterus belong in this scheme? It probably does not belong. From what has been learned in advanced reproductive treatments over the years and from the fact that there are tubal, ovarian, abdominal and cervical ectopic pregnancies, embryos do not seem to be overly "picky" about the environment in which they implant.
The contemporary data suggest that the embryo quality (translate: egg quality) is the pivotal factor in successful advanced reproductive treatments.
Please use the following links to learn more about the most prevalent causes of infertility:
- Spontaneous Conception And Fertility
- Aging And Female Fertility Potential
- Fertility Testing
- Ovarian Function And Female Infertility
- Male Infertility
- Unexplained Infertility
- Endometriosis
- Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS)
- Tubal Factor Infertility
- Uterine Fibroids
- Uterine Lining Factor
