What Is Infertility And Is It Treatable?

Conceiving a child is one of life’s great joys, but for infertile couples it can be an arduous process requiring much patience to conceive. The American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) defines infertility as a disease of the reproductive system that impairs one of the body’s most basic functions: the conception of children.

Conceiving a child is a complicated process that depends upon multiple factors, including:

• healthy sperm and egg development
• unblocked fallopian tubes that allow the sperm to reach the egg
• the sperm’s ability to fertilize the egg when they meet
• the ability of the fertilized egg (embryo) to become implanted in the woman’s uterus
• sufficient embryo quality.

Last, but not least, for the pregnancy to continue to full term, the embryo must be healthy and the woman’s hormonal climate sufficient for its development. When just one of these factors is off, infertility problems can occur.

Age also is an important factor. As a woman ages, her ability to conceive and bear children decreases. A woman is most fertile in her early twenties, and her fertility begins to decline in her late twenties and early thirties. A healthy 30-year-old woman has about a 20 percent chance per month to conceive. This rate declines to about 5 percent per month by the age of 40.

Although men experience a decrease in sperm production after age 25, some men remain fertile into their sixties and seventies. Due to the fact that more and more couples are delaying starting a family until their thirties or beyond, infertility is becoming more common.

Fertility problems are common in both women and men. About 40 percent of these problems are caused by a female factor and 40 percent by a male factor. Approximately 20 percent of fertility problems are caused by a combination of both.