INFERTILITY

Infertility

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Infertility

Infertility generally refers to a condition where a couple is unable to conceive a child due to biological factors. It may also refer to a woman's inability to carry a pregnancy to its full term. However, the definition use by doctors specializing in the field of infertility, consider a couple for treatment if: the woman is under 35 years of age and didn't conceive a child in the last 12 months of unprotected, contraceptive free sexual intercourse or a woman is over 35 years of age and didn't conceive a child in the last 6 months of unprotected, contraceptive free sexual intercourse. Here, it can be observed that women over the age of 35 are treated with greater urgency, since a longer term wait would make the situation worse in older women. There are two types of infertility primary infertility and secondary infertility. Primary infertility refers to when the couple has never been able to conceive, whereas the secondary infertility refers to a condition where a couple has conceived before but is now facing difficulties conceiving (Tsafrir, Simon, Margalioth & Laufer, 2009).

There are a number of biological reasons that causes infertility some of which may be treated using various different methods. In order to correctly find out whether or not the couple that is trying to conceive is facing infertility problems, a doctor will have to get the couples health and sexual histories. Besides that the doctor will have to perform infertility checkups and tests in order to determine whether or not the couple is facing infertility problems ('Antibiotic Treatment Can Help Prevent Ectopic Pregnancy & Tubal Factor Infertility', 2011). In men, the tests are simple and few. While testing a man for infertility a doctor may only need to test the semen. The doctors look at the number, shape and the movement of the sperm. However, sometimes doctors may also test the hormones in man in order to assess infertility in man. In women, the first thing that the doctors check is if the woman is ovulating each month. There are a number of ways to check this; it can be done at home also by noticing the body temperature every morning for several months, writing down how her cervical mucus looks, and by using a home ovulation kit available at any drug store. Doctors can also perform ovulation checks through blood tests and ultrasound of the ovaries. If the ovulation occurs to be normal then the doctor recommends other tests in order to check for infertility such as, Hysterosalpingography and Laparoscopy (Moultry, 2005).

Once the problem behind infertility is found through tests and checkups, the doctors then devises the treatment according to the need and requirements of the patients. There are a number of methods both medical and conventional that can be used in order to treat infertility. At home the patient may use an at home conception kit, which includes cervical caps that aid in conception. The cervical cap allows all semen to be ...