Struggling With Infertility? Here's What We Want You to Know

The time is right to start or add to your family and you’re anxious to move ahead, but pregnancy test after pregnancy test delivers the same results — negative.

The first thing we want you to know about your frustrating experience is that you're not alone — the World Health Organization reports that 1 in 6 adults around the globe is affected by infertility.

At Capital Women’s Care, our team of pregnancy specialists have a good deal of experience helping women and couples who are having trouble conceiving, and we understand how frustrating and difficult infertility can be.

We dive into a few important points about fertility issues because knowledge is power and it can help you on your fertility journey.

The definition of infertility

When you decide you’re ready to have a child, you can’t help but to want it to happen as soon as possible. The reality is that it can take time for the conditions to be right for pregnancy, so patience is key.

In general, we define infertility as trying to get pregnant for 12 consecutive months without success. In more specific terms, we break infertility down into two categories:

Primary infertility — you’ve never been pregnant and you can’t get pregnant after 6 months of trying if you’re 35 or older or one year of trying if you’re younger than 35.
Secondary infertility — you’ve been pregnant before and delivered the baby, but you’re unable to get pregnant again.

These distinctions can be important in narrowing down the possibilities behind your fertility issues.

Infertility — a three-way street

There’s a lot that needs to come together to create a pregnancy, so it should come as no surprise that there are many potential roadblocks that stem from different sources.

In the United States, about one-third of infertility issues stem from a problem on the female side of the equation. Another third of cases of infertility come from the male side. The final third is attributed to causes unknown or to issues on both sides.

Common causes of female infertility

When it comes to issues in women that can interfere with fertility, the following are some of the more common culprits:

Endometriosis
Pelvic inflammatory disease
Scar tissue in the uterus
Thyroid issues
Inadequate supply or quality of eggs
Hormone imbalance issues, such as polycystic ovary syndrome
Structural issues that block sperm from reaching your eggs
Having obesity

As long as this list is, it’s far from complete, but we wanted to give you an idea of the many things that can interfere with your family-building goals.

Fertility can be fickle

One of the more frustrating aspects of infertility is that we often can’t pinpoint an exact cause. It’s not uncommon for us to run test after test without identifying a problem, and then the patient ends up getting pregnant.

Sometimes there’s no rhyme or reason when it comes to fertility and your body just needs for everything to align in a particular way to support pregnancy. This is why we always start our infertility treatments by telling patients that fertility is far from black and white.

To drive this point home further, some women report that the stress of trying to get pregnant can have the opposite effect, and that it’s only when they relax and take the focus off conception that they finally have success.

So, with everything we discussed in mind, tackling fertility issues requires a good deal of patience. Rest assured, we’re with you every step of the way to help you realize your dream family.

For assistance with your fertility issues, we invite you to contact one of our three offices in Frederick and Mount Airy, Maryland, to schedule a consultation.