Medically Reviewed By Experts Panel
This blog is based on the discussion on IVF – what, why, and when with renowned gynaecologists and leading fertility expert.
Infertility is a disease of the male or female reproductive system defined by the failure to achieve a pregnancy after 12 months or more of regular unprotected sexual intercourse. Infertility affects millions of people and has an impact on their families and communities.
Nowadays there has been an increase in infertility rate. According to WHO infertility rate has increased from 10 % to 17 % . Hence, it’s critical to look at various causes and factors contributing to increase in infertility.
First of all, recently overall awareness about infertility has increased. Media may it be social media or digital media or print media has played an important role in creating awareness and educating people that if one is not able to conceive, one should visit a doctor.
Secondly, Late Marriages is another contributing factor. Today people are getting married at the age of 35 or even at 40. So people are thinking of having a baby at the age of 37 or beyond.
Career – Today couples give priority to their career. They want to settle down first, have financial stability and then think of having kids. This reduces the chances of getting pregnant naturally.
Environmental pollution has been observed to be a cause for infertility. Its been observed that due to pollution ovarian reserve among females is reducing.
There are life style related causes like smoking, consumption of recreational drugs, unwanted pregnancy and infections due to multiple partners. All these factors nowadays are seen prominently.
Awareness about Infertility among Males too has increased. Today couples are visiting the doctors and some males are checking their sperm count on their own and asking for the treatment.
Change of Mindset – Nowadays some couples don’t want a baby initially and after few years change their mind and decide to go for a baby. But by then they already are 35 years plus and their fertility potential has reduced. In such case too couples need fertility treatment.
Besides these external and social reasons, there can be some medical reasons. The problem can be with uterus or tube or ovaries or sperm. There can be blockage in fallopian tube, or fibroids or polyps in uterus, or ovulation disorder, or low sperm count.
These need proper diagnosis and treatment by doctors.
Since age is an important factor in infertility, timely treatment is very crucial. Hence, if a couple is unable to conceive for a year, then they should visit a gynaecologist even though they are just 25 -30 years old. Similarly if one’s age is 35 years and not able to conceive within six months, then one must see the doctor. 40 years plus couple should get checked to rule out the possibility of any problem. This will help them know if they have time to try for conceiving naturally or need treatment. Then there are some red alerts like irregular periods or pain because irregular periods means no ovulation and pain can be due to infection in uterus. Repeated abortion too can cause infertility. So such patients must see the doctor immediately.
IVF is a boon for couples who have a problem in conceiving naturally. Today we have 50-60 % success rate of IVF due to advanced technology and effective medicines. Many IVF centres provide affordable treatment and finance schemes are also available so couples can overcome this disease of infertility. We will talk about this in detail in our next blog.
Also as Dr Nandita Palshetkar, leading fertility expert advises, if one wants to delay pregnancy due to any reason, there is an option of freezing egg which one should definitely go for to overcome the age barrier and prevent infertility.
