Vital Tips for Couples Struggling to Conceive

There comes a point in the year, when, after trying for so long, you still aren't getting pregnant. If you have systematically been following your ovulation cycle with no success as yet, then you may be disheartened. There is no worse feeling than thinking you may not be able to have children. The path to success lies in evaluating every option open to you - and proceeding with the choices that are best for you.

Fertility treatment has come along leaps and bounds in the past 30 years. There are now so many options when it comes to fertility doctors and clinics that you may feel like you don't even know where to start.

Fortunately, you can follow below steps to start you on your journey. Once you've had a read, make an appointment with your infertility specialist to chat further about the options open to you.

Counselling

The first port of call when having fertility issues is to chat with a professional who is skilled in the area. They can help you with doubts, questions and misconceptions that you may have to do with fertility and IVF.

Lifestyle changes

Our lives these days have a lot of external stressors involved. Whether it's mental health or physical health, they can both have effects on both male and female fertility. There may be medications that are affecting your fertility too. Chatting with a trained professional will help in determining which, if any, lifestyle changes you should think about making if you'd like to increase the chances of conceiving.

Hormone therapy

For those women experiencing problems with egg development and subsequent release, hormone therapy can be a good way to coax the egg along it's intended path. For further information, again, chat with a professional at the fertility centre.

IVF

IVF is often thought of as a cost prohibitive procedure, but this isn't necessarily true - costs have dropped significantly across the years. IVF costs are a lot lower than they used to be, and many couples experience success with this technique who wouldn't otherwise have been able to conceive naturally.

Experiencing fertility problems can cause a lot of stress and heartache - but it's best to think of it as a challenge that can be overcome. Visiting an infertility specialist will give you all the information you need to make informed decisions about the future and your body, so don't be afraid to book an appointment.

Conditions responsible for causing infertility in women

Difficulties conceiving and pregnancy-related problems are common. In this section I give you a broad overview of these topics and some sources of additional information, but speak to your gynaecologist-if you’re currently pregnant or if you need further help and advice.

Finding out about fertility problems

If you’ve been trying for a baby for a year or so and you haven’t been able to conceive, you’re not alone. For a woman to take a year or so to conceive is quite normal, but sometimes an underlying physical cause – in the man or the woman – can make conceiving more difficult, and in rare cases impossible. Lots of reasons may be responsible, and here is an overview of the common ones.

Consider whether any of these causes of failure to conceive may apply to you:

• Blocked Tubes: If you’ve ever suffered from a pelvic infection (such as infection of your fallopian tubes, which is called salpingitis), your tubes may be blocked, impeding an egg from travelling from your ovaries to your womb. Sometimes, a previous ectopic pregnancy outside your womb or a termination of pregnancy may also play a role. See your infertility specialist for further assessment and to discuss the management options.
• Hormone problems: Irregular or infrequent periods suggest that you may suffer from a hormone imbalance, which may affect your fertility. A condition called polycystic ovary syndrome, or PCOS, is the most common hormone disorder affecting women in their reproductive years and often presents with fertility problems. Visit your infertility specialist for advice if you have PCOS and are having a hard time conceiving.
• Long-term illness: Some chronic illnesses such as diabetes, thyroid gland disorders or chronic infections can affect your fertility. See your infertility specialist for further advice if you suffer from any of these illnesses and you’re trying without success for a baby.
• Stress: Sometimes, couples can get into a real rut about trying for a baby. Instead of enjoying sex, intercourse may become a matter of routine when sex is dictated by the diary rather than because you both feel in the mood. Try to take your time even if your reason for having sex is for you to become pregnant. 

Generally, if you’ve been pregnant in the past and particularly when you’ve had one or more babies, the chances of any medical causes are less compared to when you’ve never been pregnant, although you may still want to get checked out by your infertility specialist.

Infertility: Primary causes and how to deal with it

Infertility has various causes, and figuring out which applies to you may be very simple or intricate. Previously, only women were blamed for infertility, the reality is that male and female factors both share equally in infertility. Consider the following statistics:

• 1/3 of infertility problems are caused by female factors and same applies to males
• Approximately 20 percent of infertility is inexplicable
• Around 10-15 % of infertility is caused by a blend of male and female factors

Among women, prevalent causes of infertility are:

• Ovulatory disorders resulting in no ovulation or irregularovulation
• Tubal disorders resulting in blocked or infected tubes
• Uterine issues-fibroids, polyps or adhesions

Infertility in men is caused due to:

• Low sperm count
• Decreased sperm motility
• Abnormally shaped sperm
• No sperm at all in the ejaculate

Each of these categories of infertility can be caused by a number of things; for example, a decreased sperm count can be caused by a disease such as diabetes, by a birth defect, or by trauma. A woman can have blocked tubes from endometriosis, pelvic inflammatory disease, or from a congenital malformation. Anovulation can be caused by polycystic ovarian syndrome, premature ovarian failure, or by over-exercising. While it may be fairly obvious what the problem is, finding the reason for the problem may be more difficult.

How to diagnose infertility?

You may think this is a no-brainer: If you’re not getting pregnant, it seems like you’ve already diagnosed yourself with infertility! However, diagnosing a lack of pregnancy is the easy part; figuring out why you’re not getting pregnant is the hard part.

Your infertility specialist can run a few simple blood tests to help determine whether or not you’re ovulating. Ovulation is, after all, the first step in getting pregnant, and usually blood tests or observation of your own cervical mucus and temperature can help you figure out when you’re ovulating so you can time sex accordingly.

If you’re still not pregnant after six months of “hitting the mark,” it’s time for more testing; your infertility specialist may suggest a test to see if your tubes are open and testing on your partner to see if “his boys can swim.”

This process of looking for the problem and then seeing if it’s fixed can take a few months. Only 20 percent of infertile couples never have a definite answer to why they can’t get pregnant, so the odds are your favour.