Infertility awareness month occurs each June and highlights a surprisingly common issue affecting millions of people worldwide, with an estimated 17.5% of people experiencing infertility.(1)
Infertility occurs due to a number of reasons and can arise due to female factors, male factors, a combination of both, or it can be unexplained. A quarter of cases of infertility have no identifiable cause.(2) Primary infertility refers to the inability to conceive, whilst secondary infertility occurs following at least one successful pregnancy.
There are often no clear signs of infertility, other than the inability to conceive, and with so many factors and variables involved it can be difficult to know where to begin. Many couples visit specialised clinics in order to get to the root cause of their inability to conceive and may be advised to test for specific issues such as structural changes within the reproductive tract, hormone imbalances, and poor sperm quality.
Assistive reproductive technologies such as IVF have increased many couples’ ability to start a family, but there can be drawbacks. The success rate can be variable, it can be draining financially and emotionally and there can be health risks associated with treatments.(3) Before assistive reproductive technologies are suggested, it can be beneficial to take a holistic approach to health and fertility and to support many factors that can be involved in difficulty conceiving.
Reproductive function can’t be rushed and around three to six months of positive interventions may be required before trying to conceive again. This ensures factors such as hormone imbalances are given time to rebalance, ova and sperm quality are optimised, and negative factors are reduced or eliminated.
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