Apollo Hospitals

Persistence of pain even after full healing of an affected area after injury or ailment is known as chronic pain. Chronic pain can also occur due to an undiagnosed underlying condition within the body. Any form of pain which lasts for more than 6 months can be categorized as chronic pain. Chronic pain might be continuous or episodic, excruciating or mild, totally incapacitating or merely inconvenient.

Male infertility is when the male is not able to get a fertile female pregnant. Though not openly admitted, it is an extremely common condition. For a man, it is highly hurting to the ego when it is identified. Given the discrete nature of the topic, it is difficult both for a man to admit that he could possibly be the reason the couple is not able to conceive. If that happens, the next challenge is to get them to undergo treatment.
With times, things are changing and more men are open to getting tested. The changed lifestyles are also contributing to male infertility, and the incidence has risen by a couple of percentages.

Causes: Male infertility is caused by a variety of issues leading to poor sperm quality and/or quantity, ranging from:

1. Sperm production, which can be reduced in numbers.
2. The quality of the sperm could be poor, with reduced mobility being extremely common. When this happens, they are not able to travel up the uterus and penetrate the egg.
3. Erectile dysfunction, where the erection is too soft or short for penetration into the female
4. Premature ejaculation, where the sperms are released very soon before they can enter the female.
5. In addition, lifestyle causes are another major cause of male infertility. These include smoking, increased stress levels, alcohol abuse, lack of exercise, poor dietary habits, and increased junk food.

Management: Male infertility is not as easily accepted as female fertility, though it is the cause for the couple’s inability to conceive in about 50% of the cases.
Once identified and accepted, treating male infertility is quite easy compared to female infertility. In order of progression, the treatment modes are listed below.

Counseling: In most cases, a sexual counseling session with the couple can help iron out performance anxiety and help build trust and frankness in the relationship. In many couples, this helps in overcoming the problem. Given the discrete nature of the topic, it takes time for a couple to get to know each other. There is also the male performance anxiety which can lead to poor performance. All this needs some time and some external help, which can improve the sexual compatibility and overall relationship.

Hormonal therapy: This is another simple and effective way to manage male infertility. Topical or systemic androgens can help in treating male infertility.

Surgery: In worse cases, where there are blocked sperm tubes, surgery may be required to unblock them.

In vitro fertilization: In couples whom none of the above work, IVF could be used to help in conception.

Male infertility needs to be accepted and then it becomes easier to treat.

The term infertility in females explains a wide range of disorders but in order to simplify things, lets’ just say, infertility in women is a condition in which women are unable to conceive. There are numerous reasons that can be responsible for this situation and although some are preventable or curable, most others have no specific cure or treatment.

Ovulatory Disorders

One of the most common reasons for infertility is an ovulatory disorder. Almost 30 percent of female infertility is caused due to this reason. 70 percent of such infertility is treatable with drugs such as Reprones/Menogan and Clomiphene. Here is a list of causes of failed ovulation-

1. Disruption in the complex hormonal balance.

2. Ovaries fail to produce mature eggs. Polycystic ovarian syndrome is the most common disorder causing this problem. This syndrome has reduced FSH production and increased production of LH, Oestrogen and Testosterone. Suppressed FSH production may cause the partial development of ovarian follicles.

3. Hypothalamus may malfunction thereby causing the pituitary to malfunction, thus losing control over the process or FSH and LH production.

4. Physical damage to the ovaries by multiple surgeries or due to the formation of cysts.

5. A rare case of premature menopause.

6. Problems of the follicle.

7. Poor functioning of fallopian tubes

Diseases or disorders in the tube have been another major reason of infertility in women. Almost 25 percent of women infertility occurs due to this reason. Although treatments exist, success rates of the treatments are as high as 30 percent. The causes of tube damage may be as follows-

1. Infection caused by bacteria or viruses

2. Abdominal diseases like colitis and appendicitis

3. Previous pelvic or abdominal surgeries.

4. A condition called ectopic pregnancy which occurs in the tube, and even if very carefully but successfully overcome, may leave permanent damage.

5. Rare congenital defects in which women may be born with tube anomalies.

Endometriosis

This is the condition where the endometrium expands excessively thereby preventing individuals from getting pregnant. This affects almost 10 percent of the population of infertile women. Almost 40 percent of women with endometriosis are infertile.

Other Factors

Other additional factors may include:

1. Abnormal uterus

2. Congenital diseases

3. Behavioural factors like personal habits, lifestyle and health factors.

4. Exercise and diet- extremely overweight or underweight women may have problems in conceiving.

5. Cigarette smoking reduces the chances of conceiving by one-third.

6. Alcohol increases the chances of birth defects.

Hence, pregnancy is tougher than it might really seem.