Causes, factors of risks and incidence

Couples that never had children and failed their attempts when trying, are said to be suffering from primary infertility.

Secondary infertility is the term used for the couples that had children but are not able to remain pregnant again.

There are many physical and psychological factors that produce infertility. Male factors like retrograde ejaculation, impotence, hormone deficiency, environmental pollutants, scarring from sexually transmitted disease, or decreased sperm count cause around 30 – 40 % of infertility cases. Heavy marijuana use or use of prescription drugs such as cimetidine, spironolactone, and nitrofurantoin can produce low sperm count.

Scarring from sexually transmitted disease or endometriosis, ovulation dysfunction, poor nutrition, hormone imbalance, ovarian cysts, pelvic infection, tumor, or transport system abnormality from the cervix through the fallopian tubes are female factors that cause infertility and are responsible for 40 – 50 of the infertility cases.

Unidentified causes or factors contributing from both the woman and the man are responsible for the remaining 10 – 30 %.

Statistics show that 10-20% of the couples trying to conceive children will fail even after one year of attempts. The chances for healthy couples with both partners under the age of 30 having regular intercourse have only 25-30% / month chances to conceive. Women are most fertile in their early 20s and the fertility drops when they reach the age of 35 to less than 10 %/ month.

Together with the age, the following factors may produce infertility:

• - Varicocele (men)
• - A past medical history that includes DES exposure (men or women)
• - Eating disorders (women)
• - Anovulatory menstrual cycles
• - Endometriosis
• - Defects of the uterus (myomas) or cervical obstruction
• - Long-term (chronic) disease such as diabetes
• - Multiple sexual partners (increases risk for sexually transmitted diseases)
• - Sexually transmitted diseases
• - History of PID (pelvic inflammatory disease)
• - History of orchitis or epididymitis in men
• - Mumps (men)

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