As you've learned, everything you do can affect your ability to get pregnant. The medications you take can alter your body enough to prevent you from having periods or ovulating. Losing or gaining weight can alter your hormones and prevent pregnancy. There are many other potential reasons for problems with your fertility.

Cancer of the female reproductive organs (the uterus, ovaries, and cervix) can potentially cause fertility problems. The medications and treatments used to help fight and cure your cancers can also wreak havoc on your uterus and ovaries. While on chemotherapy you might find that your periods stop completely. Sometimes this cessation of menstruation is permanent and lasts past your cancer treatments.

If you have been diagnosed with cancer and wish to help preserve your fertility, be sure to discuss this with your oncologist, cancer specialist, and a fertility specialist. There are certain ways to try to help preserve the fertility or to prepare you to have children at a later date. This area is being heavily studied and new advances are being made all of the time. One example might be to do a cycle of stimulation and have your eggs retrieved and fertilized for implantation at a later date.

Perhaps you take medications for a variety of issues like high blood pressure or to fight depression. These can also lead to fertility problems. In many cases, these medications have only a temporary effect on your fertility. Be sure to advise your doctors about any medications you are taking, even if they do not seem significant to you. Oftentimes your doctor will be able to prescribe an alternate medication to treat your symptoms that does not inhibit fertility.

The causes of female factor infertility vary greatly. The importance of a good fertility workup and a great relationship with your partner and practitioner can't be emphasized enough. It will take time, patience, and more to help you correctly identify and treat your infertility.