What Are The Common Causes Of Infertility In Men And Women?
Even today in the 21st century, there are people who believe that if a couple fails to conceive, it is an infertility issue with the woman and that there is absolutely nothing wrong with the man. However, the truth based on scientific facts is are men equally responsible for infertility issues and it is only after a proper examination and assessment that one can conclude reasons for a couple’s childlessness.
For any couple planning for a baby, it can be really upsetting to get a negative result for their home-based pregnancy test month after month. They plan their future acts of intercourse according to the women’s menstrual cycle and retry a few more times before panicking about the situation.
When there are no known reasons (example age over 35; polycystic ovaries, endometriosis etc), a couple must plan to see a medical healthcare practitioner and seek his/her advice for their concerns, after one year of unprotected sexual intercourse.
Both the male and the female partners must get themselves checked for fertility disorders as almost 35% of pregnancy failures are due to Male, 35% due to female, 20% couples have combination of both and in around 10% cases, reason is unexplained
In this article, let us try to understand the most common causes of male and female infertility:
Male Infertility
Male infertility is a condition where the male reproductive system fails to produce healthy sperms, thus leading to the male partner’s failure to impregnate the female partner. Healthy/Normal semen has good Sperm count (>15 million/ml), out of which at least 40% are motile and minimum 4% are in normal shape. In some cases, semen analysis may be normal, but sperm function might be ineffective and can impact fertilization and proper embryo development.c
Most common reason for infertility in men is lifestyle disorders such as excessive intake of alcohol and drugs, smoking, tobacco consumption, stress, irregular sleep patterns, shift workers, late nights, too much exercise, extended durations of cycling, have been proven to worsen the male infertility conditions.
Infertility in male members is sometimes caused due to environmental factors such as exposure to heat, X-Rays and other radiations, overexposure to chemicals or continued hazard of heavy metals, etc
In a few cases, male infertility has also been linked to hormonal imbalance, certain health issues such as infections and varicocele. Sometimes medication can also reduce Sperm count, for example hypertension medication
In some men, there are Ejaculation issues, swelling in the testicles (varicocele and hydrocele). But as all these reasons are mild and male infertility often goes unnoticed until after multiple failed attempts of unprotected sexual intercourse
Female Infertility
Main reasons for female infertility include inability to release eggs (ovulation disorder PCO) damaged and blocked Fallopian tubes.
Other than these, obesity, late night sleep, alcohol and smoking too
An important pointer towards female infertility is regularity of women’s menstrual cycle. An irregular cycle may point towards anovulation.
As you know, the regular monthly cycle occurs around once every 28 days, women who have cycles shorter than three weeks or longer than five weeks must get themselves checked for infertility.
These days, PCOD or PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) is a very common situation seen in day to day practice among women of all different age groups. There can be hormonal imbalance, inability to release egg (anovulation) and thus they have difficulty in getting pregnant.
Conclusion
In an ideal situation, young couples must try for pregnancy for up to 12 months before worrying about infertility. Couples that are over 35 years of age must not wait for more than 6 months and see a doctor. In either case, if a couple is keen to conceive, they should schedule a doctor visit and get their concerns addressed.
At Genesis Fertility & Laparoscopy Centre, we have experienced doctors and trained staff that work together in treating both male and female infertility. We have advanced medical equipment and we follow the international standards of medical practice to ensure that only the best healthcare is made available to all our patients.
Genesis is not your last stop in search for a good fertility centre, but your first step for parenthood.
Genesis Fertility & Laparoscopy Centre is an ISO 9001:2008 certified fertility centre and offers all kinds of treatments for infertility such as – IUI, IVF, PGS/PGD, and surrogacy. Book an appointment with renowned infertility specialist Dr. Narmada Katakam at Genesis Fertility & Laparoscopy Centre today!
