Seven possible causes of infertility- which one is preventing you!

Being pregnant is every woman’s dream but there are times when certain situations deprive a woman that beautiful dream of being what she should be…. Mum! There are seven classes of causes of infertility. Infertility can be caused by one of these or combination of it.

1- Ovulation Issues
This is a condition where a hormonal disorder prevents the normal release of mature eggs from your ovaries each month, which reduces considerably your chances to get pregnant. This condition is called anovulation. To fix it, there are ovulation-stimulating drugs that really help to regulate your ovulation cycle but be sure to ask for medical advice before taking it.

2- Blocked Fallopian Tubes
When the fallopian tubes are blocked, it makes it very hard for your eggs to arrive at the uterus and be in contact with the sperm. There are many causes that could provoke this, such as Chlamydia (a sexually transmitted disease), pelvic inflammatory disease or previous sterilization surgery The way to fix this is with Laparoscopy surgery, but if the blockage can't be removed successfully, In Vitro Fertilization treatment may work. However, keep in mind that it is a really expensive treatment.

3- Damaged eggs
When you are at your late 30's or early 40's, the quality of your eggs starts declining considerably. This means they are not as "fresh" and start to develop genetic anomalies, which makes a lot harder to sustain pregnancy. The most recommended action when the causes of infertility are genetic is to find a young egg donor, because you can still develop the baby in your womb with "borrowed" eggs and the probabilities of having a safe pregnancy increases a lot.

4- Endometriosis
This condition is recognized by painful menstrual cycles and heavy menstrual bleeding. Endometriosis occurs when part of the endometric tissue, that is inside your uterus, starts to grow out of it and blocks the fallopian tubes. This is one of the most common causes of infertility and can be solved by a small surgical procedure called Laparoscopy. This surgery is not a particularly pleasing process, but women that do it increase by a 40/60% their possibilities to get pregnant 18 months after the surgery.

5 Polycystic Ovaries Syndrome
Conceiving with polycystic ovaries is harder than normal but is very achievable. Polycystic Ovaries Syndrome (PCOS) cause a hormonal disorder on your body so you start producing more masculine hormones than feminine ones, interrupting the regularity of your periods. This dramatically reduces your chances to conceive. The most effective way to treat this hormonal disorder is with fertility drugs but you should do it with the supervision of your gynecologist or a fertility endocrinologist because he must indicate you the right dosage for it to work.

6- Sperm Issues
The main causes of infertility on males are low sperm count and slow sperm mobility. There are fertility drugs to increase the sperm count and they usually improve the conceiving chances by 25%. Another option to this problem is Artificial Insemination or Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (which means to directly inject the sperm into the egg)

7- Overweight
This is by far one of the most common causes of infertility and is easily overlooked. Watch out for your weight, since elevated levels of insulin in your body can mess around with your hormonal balance, complicating the conception and increasing the possibilities of pregnancy complications; like gestational diabetes. Studies have revealed that even a small reduction in your weight (about 5%) can greatly increase your chances to get pregnant if you are having trouble to conceive.(Alexa Miller)

Causes Of Miscarriages (most common causes)

A miscarriage is never forgotten. It doesn’t matter if it was one week ago or several years, because it’s not just a “miscarriage”, but the BABY that has been lost and could be next to you right now.

So if you endured this kind of loss and you’re fearful it may arise again, learning about the causes of miscarriages will help you prevent them and have an accomplished pregnancy that will bring to you a marvelous and healthy child.

These are the 3 Most Common Causes of Miscarriages:

*Genetic Causes

Genetic causes of miscarriages usually happen because of an advanced maternal age. The reason of this is that, as you age, your body starts to deteriorate; and after 35, your eggs start to “loose their freshness” and develop genetic issues, so try to keep in mind the relashionship between age and fertility when evaluating your conception plan.

If the miscarriage happens before the 12th week of pregnancy, probabilities are there is a genetic cause that provoked it. Another characteristic of genetic causes of miscarriages is that it is usually a single event. This indicate that if you had a second or a third miscarriage, chances are it’s NOT because of a genetic problem.

Nonetheless, if you are trying to conceive and you are over 40, it is highly recommended that you consider the possibility of looking for a donor of eggs.
The child will still be developed in your womb, but you will be using “fresher” eggs that have less chances of having a genetic anomaly.

*Physical Causes

The physical causes of miscarriages are mainly related to 2 parts of your body involved with reproduction. Your cervix and uterus.

The uterus is commonly known as the womb, and its function is to nurture and hold the baby while it develops inside of you. The cervix is a muscle in the lower part of the uterus that mantains the baby in its place until the moment of birth comes.

The causes of miscarriages related to the uterus are:

- Malformations in the uterus:

Most common are “Septate uterus” or “Two horn uterus”.

What they cause is that the space inside your womb gets divided or reduced by strings of tissue, affecting the full development of the embryo because it doesn’t have enough space to grow the way it’s supposed to.

- Malformations in the cervix:

Incomplete cervix

Think of the cervix as the door to the uterus. If you happen to have an undeveloped cervix, when the embryo has reached certain size, it will start putting pressure against it, and if the cervix doesn’t have the strength to hold him, this could very easily lead to a miscarriage.

Malformations are causes of miscarriages that are intricate to deal with. Nonetheless, they can be fixed using surgical procedures.

To know if you may have any of these internal issues, make an appointment to your gynecologist or fertility endocrinologist to practice yourself an ultrasound. This is usually enough to find out, however, if the ultrasound results are not very clear, the next process would be to do a Laparoscopy, which is a minor surgery that allows the doctor to look inside your uterus.

*Hormonal Causes

Hormones are the chemicals produced by your brain to give signals to all the organs of your body. Progesterone is the most important hormone that controls of all your reproductive functions.

Hormonal causes of miscarriages happen when the creation of Progesterone falls out of balance and starts altering the way your body controls pregnancy, including your menstrual cycle and the inner lining of your uterus.

The most common cause of hormonal miscarriages is a condition called Polycistic Ovaries Syndrom (PCOS), which starts producing a great number of masculine hormones (testosterone) and less quantity of feminine hormones (progesterone).

Some of the symptoms of PCOS are

-High blood pressure
-Growth of unwanted body hair
-Oily skin
-Dandruff
-The absence of your period or too much irregularity on it

To reduce your chances of miscarriages when conceiving with Polycystic Ovaries, you should follow a treatment with a fertility specialist or a qualified gynecologist.

These treatments usually consist on the prescription of substances to regulate your hormonal production; such as a very popular fertility drug called Clomid, exercise and a healthy diet.

These are the main causes of miscarriages you should know to improve your chances of having a secure pregnancy and giving birth to a healthy child.