What to Do When You Can’t Get Pregnant

What to Do When You Can't Get Pregnant

If pregnancy does not occur within six months of an active sexual life, then this is one of the signs of infertility. But don’t panic. This does not mean at all that you have infertility, perhaps you just need, for example, to adjust your diet. Second, infertility is treated. Well, you should not immediately start in vitro fertilisation (IVF). Remember, infertility is not the same as IVF.

Let’s figure out what to do

Infertility is a diagnosis that 10% of women all over the world have to live with: according to statistics, every fourth married couple is infertile. In this article, we will talk about what female infertility is, how to live with it and whether one can overcome it.

What is female infertility?

Female infertility is a diagnosis that is made after a year of unsuccessful attempts to have children, subject to regular sex with a partner without contraception. If a woman is older than 35 years, the diagnosis is made faster – after 6 months. After 35 years, the ability to conceive gradually decreases, so older women should not delay treatment.

However, one should not rush to make sad conclusions either. According to statistics, even completely healthy couples under the age of 30 manage to conceive a child in the first three months only in 20-37% of cases. At the same time, after six months, pregnancy occurs already in 80% of couples. Until a year has passed from the first attempt, there is no need to worry, be examined, and even more so, to be treated.

Why healthy women don’t get pregnant immediately

Pregnancy depends on many reasons – in order for the “stars to align” and all the factors to coincide, sometimes some time must pass.

For example, it is known that it is easiest to get pregnant if you make love 3-4 times a week. But a break of more than 5 days can adversely affect the quality of spermatozoa.

In addition, a lot depends on the lifestyle of parents – stress and heavy workload reduce fertility in both men and women. It’s no surprise that many successful pregnancies have started during family vacations.

How to increase your chances of conceiving a baby

If less than 6-12 months have passed since the first attempt, you can try a few “life hacks”:

If more than a year has passed, and nothing helps, it is time to see a doctor. Only a doctor can diagnose “infertility” ist (reproductologist).

What are some possible causes of infertility?

It is important to understand that infertility is not only a female problem. Both a woman and a man can be infertile. This means that it is necessary to examine both partners to make a diagnosis .

Causes of female infertility

Causes of male infertility

Before going to the doctor, a couple should independently test the method for determining the ability to conceive. To do this, a woman every morning measures her basal temperature and builds a graph. This will allow the couple to know exactly the time of ovulation and try to conceive a child in anticipation of the release of the egg from the follicle. Also, a woman needs to keep her peiod calendar. This calendar will greatly simplify the task of the doctor during the examination.

What tests should be done to confirm the diagnosis?

Both spouses are subject to examination for infertility. Some tests are prescribed for both sexes, and some analyzes are intended only for men / women.

In the course of the study, it is necessary to conduct a number of biochemical and clinical studies in order to identify homeostasis disorders and possible deviations in the work of the internal systems.

For women:

For men:

Is it possible to cure female infertility?

Infertility is treated, and often quite successfully – according to statistics, 50% of women are able to conceive a child after diagnosis and therapy. On the other hand, success depends on many factors, such as the age, history of previous pregnancies, problems with the partner’s sperm. Many factors influence the possibility of getting pregnant, so it can be difficult to predict the result.

If the problem is related to being overweight or underweight, it is often enough to normalize the weight for a successful pregnancy. True, much more often the problem is associated with sex hormones – in this situation, the doctor will select the appropriate medication. And if a woman has the problem is in the obstruction of the fallopian tubes or in the uterus itself, surgery may be required.

What to do when treatment doesn’t work

If these treatments are not suitable or have not helped, the in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedure is done.

The essence of IVF is that the patient’s ovaries are stimulated with the help of hormones, then the egg is taken and fertilized with the husband’s sperm, then the embryo is “grown” in a special incubator for some time and transplanted into the mother’s uterus. A baby is born in the same way as other children conceived “naturally”.

The average cost for a complete IVF cycle in the US is about $12,000 + medications. In large metropolitan areas it is often higher. There are some low cost IVF programs that charge significantly less than average.

It is important to understand that this is a complex treatment method that requires serious preparation and gives the best result until the age of 40-45. It is difficult to predict how successful IVF will be. According to statistics, the procedure ends with the birth of a healthy baby in about 27% of cases.

At the same time, IVF success rates vary greatly not only in different countries but also in different clinics in the same city. There are clinics in which in 30-40% of cases it is possible to achieve a positive result on the first try.

Very often, mothers are concerned about possible health problems that may occur in children conceived with the help of IVF. But in recent times there has been much less cause for concern than 20 years ago.

When the method was first created, all viable embryos that were obtained after fertilization were planted in the uterus of mothers “just in case”. If everyone took root, the mother often gave birth to twins or triplets, and sometimes “quadruples”. It is much harder to bear several children than one.

Today, the goal of the procedure is the birth of one healthy baby, so mothers transfer only one, maximum two of the best embryos. As a result, most children born after IVF do not differ much from their peers.

To sum up…

Category: General

Tags: babies, female health, infertility, pregnancy, women