Dr. Sandhya Jain

 Couples should visit a doctor after a year of trying to have a baby without success. If you're a woman over 35 or you have an irregular menstrual cycle - and you've been trying to get pregnant for 6 months - see a doctor as soon as possible. Your partner should, too.

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.

Primary or secondary ovarian failure leads to lack of ovulation and PCO imbalance of hormones. Chocolate cyst or unruptured follicles or continuation of corpus lutiem can have disruptive ovulatory function.

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.