What Is Infertility?
Different families and couples may define infertility differently. We live in a society that is permeated by messages that tell you that you will get pregnant if you do not use birth control. This makes it hard for you to fathom why, after throwing away your birth control, you haven't gotten pregnant after a month of trying! This can lead you to be concerned about your fertility prematurely. Though it may feel like a long time, it is not unusual for conception to take a few months to achieve.
According to traditional definitions, infertility is considered as the inability to get pregnant, or to conceive. Infertility is also considered to be a disease. A more practical definition, however, is that infertility is the inability to achieve a pregnancy after discontinuing birth control and having well-timed intercourse for the period of one year or more.
About 15 percent of the general population will suffer from infertility. There are various reports and studies about what factors are the most commonly the cause of fertility problems; it is generally split between female factor, male factor, a combination of female and male factor, and unexplained infertility.
This gives you and your partner time to get to know the rhythm of your cycle. It allows you and your partner time to plan sexual intercourse around the appropriate periods of when you predict ovulation to be occurring. This definition also includes enough padding to take into account that you and your partner may have several months in which you are less likely to get pregnant because of illness, poor sleep habits, hormonal adjustments after stopping birth control, and so on.
Trying to conceive for one year before considering infertility as a factor is the average for couples. If you are especially young, you may wait as long as two years before seeking fertility help. If you are over thirty-five or have other reasons to believe that you may suffer from infertility, you may consider going in for an initial evaluation earlier than the one-year mark.
After you have been actively trying to get pregnant, and some time has passed and you are not pregnant, you may wish to start to try to increase the odds of conception. You can do this by tracking your cycles either by observing symptoms or by temperature charting. It is simple and easy to do for nearly everyone. It can also greatly increase your odds of getting pregnant by helping you find out when you ovulate or helping you discover potential problems with your ovulatory cycles. Be sure to take any type of charting you have done over the course of trying to get pregnant with you to the doctor for purposes of clarifying your cycles.
