Infertility
What is infertility?
Infertility affects one in eight couples and is typically defined as “the inability to achieve pregnancy after one year of unprotected intercourse”. If you have been trying to conceive for a year or more, you should consider an infertility evaluation. For those patients over the age of 35 you should begin the infertility evaluation after six months of unprotected intercourse so as not to delay potential treatment.
What are some common problems in women that can result in infertility?
Anovulation
Anovulation means lack of ovulation, or absent ovulation. Ovulation, which is the release of an egg from the ovary, must happen in order to achieve pregnancy. If ovulation is irregular, but not completely absent, this is called oligovulation. Both anovulation and oligovulation are kinds of ovulatory dysfunction. Ovulatory dysfunction is a common cause of female infertility, occurring in approximately 25% of infertile women.
Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS)
Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common hormonal disorder that affects 5- 10% of women. PCOS or Polycystic Ovarian Disease (PCOD) is characterized by menstrual dysfunction (usually oligomenorrhea or amenorrhea starting at menarche) and hyperandrogenism, usually associated with hirsutism. Obesity may or may not be present. Blood testosterone is usually either normal or moderately elevated, and sex hormone binding globulin is almost always reduced, resulting in an elevated serum level of free testosterone.
Abnormal Body Weight
Obesity immediately brings to mind associations with hypertension, diabetes and heart disease. Yet, most people are surprised to learn that there is an association between obesity and infertility. Epidemiological data confirm that obesity accounts for 6% of primary infertility, and even more surprising, that low body weight in women accounts for 6% of primary infertility. Thus, 12% of primary infertility results from deviations in body weight from established norms, and that this infertility can be corrected by restoring body weight to within normal established limits. More than 70% of women who are infertile as the result of body weight disorders will conceive spontaneously if their weight disorder is corrected through a weight-gaining or weight-reduction diet as appropriate.
Endometriosis
Endometriosis is an often painful disorder in which tissue that normally lines the inside of your uterus — the endometrium — grows outside your uterus. Endometriosis most commonly involves your ovaries, bowel or the tissue lining your pelvis. Rarely, endometrial tissue may spread beyond your pelvic region.
Fibroids
Uterine fibroids are noncancerous growths of the uterus that often appear during your childbearing years. Also called fibromyomas, leiomyomas or myomas, uterine fibroids aren’t associated with an increased risk of uterine cancer and almost never develop into cancer. Fibroids that change the shape of the uterine cavity (submucous) or are within the cavity (intracavitary) decrease fertility by about 70% and removal of these fibroids increases fertility by 70%. Other types of fibroids, those that are within the wall (intramural) but do not change the shape of the cavity, or those that bulge outside the wall (subserosal) do not decrease fertility, and removal of these types of fibroids does not increase fertility.
