Guest Author - Ellen Winick

If you have been trying to conceive without success and are looking to understand the cause of the problem this article may better help you make sense of what’s going on. I will outline 4 causes of infertility and how to find out if you may be experiencing one of them.

I say “may” because even though you probably want to know definitively why you are not getting pregnant and what you can do to increase your chances, infertility diagnosis and treatment is not always an exact science. Some women who seem to be the most unlikely candidates for conceiving get pregnant easily while others who appear to be normal may struggle to have a baby. And, science can not always explain this.

Causes of Infertility

1. Problems with Eggs

a) If the female is not ovulating, in other words, releasing eggs for fertilization, conception can not occur. An irregular history of menstruation may indicate an ovulation problem. Charting your basal body temperature and/or your cervical secretions or doing urine tests on your own can help diagnose these problems. [See other articles on ovulation kits, and bbt readings.) In addition, your doctor may perform a blood test or use ultrasound to test your ovulation .

b) Since women are born with all the eggs they will have in their lifetime, as a woman ages, the quantity and quality of her eggs decreases and the success of fertilization can be impaired. If you are over 35 years, age may be an issue. A FSH (Follicle-stimulating hormone) test may help your doctor diagnose if your age has affected the quality and quantity of your eggs.

2. Low Sperm counts. If a man’s sperm count is low, the chances of conception may be reduced. Research varies on the correlation between the number of sperm and the chances of impregnation. Most reports indicate that getting pregnant is possible even with low sperm counts but that it just might take longer. Here are the levels described in 2 resources:

a) In 6 Steps to Increased Fertility, a Harvard Medical School Book printed in 2000, the authors report that if a man’s sperm count is less than 20 million sperm per cubic centimeter, his sperm count might be influencing fertility.

b) In How to Get Pregnant copyright 2005, Sherman Silber,reports on a study that showed couples getting pregnant 30% of the time (without other treatment) when sperm count was less than 10 million per cc and 60% of the time when sperm count was 40 million.

3. Tubal dysfunction or blockage: For some women, the tubes that carry the egg prior to fertilization may becone dysfunctional as a result of infection or scarring. An X-ray called a hysterosalpingogram (HSG) or laproscopy be able to diagnose tubal concerns.

4. Other causes: endometriosis, uterine fibroids, emotional or other unexplained causes
A variety of other causes may interfere with fertility. You may know if you have any of these, or there are various ways your doctor may be able to help diagnos their occurrence.

Associated with each of the above causes of infertility are a growing number of infertility treatments. Talk with you doctor about how to proceed if you have been diagnosed with one of the above conditions.