Home > Infertility

1 Causes

According to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, infertility affects about 6.1 million people in the U.S., equivalent to ten percent of the reproductive age population. Female infertility accounts for one third of infertility cases, male infertility for another third, combined male and female infertility for another 15%, and the remainder of cases are "unexplained". [2]

1.1 Female infertility

Factors relating to female infertility include:

• Problems with ovulation
• Blocked fallopian tubes; this can happen as the result of pelvic inflammatory disease, endometriosis, or an ectopic pregnancy
• Hormonal problems such as Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS)
• Inability of the fertilized egg to implant in the uterus
• Inability to carry a pregnancy to term
• Genetic abnormalities, such as Turner syndrome
• Age. A woman's fertility declines after the age of 30, both in her ability to conceive and her ability to carry a pregnancy to term.

1.2 Male infertility

The chief factor in male infertility is sperm quality; the man may be producing few or no sperm (conditions known as oligospermia and azoospermia respectively), or the sperm that he produces may have poor motility (asthenozoospermia, a condition which affects the spermatozoon's ability to reach the egg). Alcohol, marijuana and other drug abuse can affect sperm quality. Other possible factors include erectile dysfunction and retrograde ejaculation. Sperm banks do not accept donations from men who are marijuana users because of the decreased ejaculate volume and decreased motility. Age is also believed to affect male fertility.

2 Treatment

There are various treatments for infertility, depending what the problem is. These treatments include:

• Fertility drugs to assist with problems ovulating. One example would be clomifene citrate (Clomid®, Serophene®), which stimulates ovulation.
• Surgery to fix problems such as blocked fallopian tubes.
• In vitro fertilization (IVF) in which eggs are removed from the woman, fertilized and then placed in the woman's uterus, bypassing the fallopian tubes. Children produced this way are popularly known as test-tube babies.
• Gamete intrafallopian transferGamete intrafallopian transfer (GIFT is an infertility treatment in which eggs are removed from a woman's ovaries, and placed in one of the fallopian tubes, along with the man's sperm. This allows fertilization to take place inside the woman's body. It ta (GIFT) in which eggs are removed from the woman, and placed in one of the fallopian tubes, along with the man's sperm. This allows fertilization to take place inside the woman's body.
• Zygote intrafallopian transfer (ZIFT) in which eggs are removed from the woman, fertilized and then placed in the woman's fallopian tubes rather than the uterus.
• Egg donation by another woman (in combination with IVF, GIFT or ZIFT). This happens when a woman's eggs are unusable, or she has a genetic disease that she does not want to run the risk of passing on.
• Donor insemination which involves the woman being artificially inseminated with donor sperm.
• Intracytoplasmic sperm injectionIntracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) is an in vitro fertilisation procedure in which a single sperm is injected directly into an egg; this procedure is most commonly used to overcome male infertility problems. See also: reproductive technology Medicine (ICSI) in which a single sperm is injected directly into an egg; the fertilized egg is then placed in the woman's uterus using IVF.
• Using a surrogate motherA surrogate mother or ersatz mother is a woman who carries a child for a couple or single person with the intention of giving that child up once it is born. The surrogate mother may be the baby's biological mother (traditional surrogacy) or she may be imp to carry the child.