Infertility

One out of every six couples in America is infertile, and this is a skyrocketing statistic more than twice as high as it was ten years ago. If any other disease showed such an overwhelming surge, the National Institute of Health would have proclaimed an epidemic and thrown medical centers around the nation into a frenzy of research in a desperate attempt to stem the tide. Yet this has not happened. Though widely discussed in the popular press, infertility is pushed under the carpet in the offices where research funding is distributed. The scientific investigation of infertility has an uneasy place in a world threatened with overpopulation.

Some people believe that infertile couples should not have children because there is something genetically wrong with them. If fertility specialists make it possible for the couple to conceive, won't the offspring be riddled with birth defects? For the vast majority, infertility has nothing to do with genetics.

Infertility is a problem shared equally by women and men: 35 percent of the time the cause can be traced to the female partner, 35 percent of the time it can be traced to the male partner, and 20 percent of the time both partners have a fertility problem. For the remaining 10 percent of infertile couples there is no traceable problem.

In women, infertility is most often caused by faulty hormonal signals or obstructions within or around the reproductive organs. In men, the most common cause of infertility is a swollen vein in the testicle. In only 2 percent of all infertile couples can the disease be traced to a chromosomal defect, and these couples are unable to conceive under any circumstances. Genetic defects are passed along in the "normal" fertile population just as frequently as they are in the "abnormal" infertile population.

More important than society's viewpoint about infertility, however, are the couple's own thoughts about the predicament. The desire to have children is powerful, rooted in something deeper than discussions about population control. People who want children but cannot have them speak of their need in ambiguous terms, for there is little precise vocabulary for the feelings they want to express. Some have suggested that the terms used by psychology to deal with the process of dying might apply anger, fear, rage, acceptance. But acceptance is a long time coming for most infertile couples.

Infertility is an intangible. There is little or no awareness of what it feels like until you have crossed the threshold and must face the problem for yourself. The desire for children becomes amplified as answers to the problem recede. Perhaps for the first time in their lives, infertile couples have lost control, and as they reach out for help only a handful of straws are offered.

Infertility is not a medical specialty; rather, it is a subspecialty of at least six different sciences: gynecology, urology, microsurgery, endocrinology, psychotherapy, and genetics. Infertile couples may have to consult many different specialists merely to discover why they are infertile. Each of these specialists may have a different approach and recommend different treatment. Some physicians approach infertility in a haphazard, hit or miss fashion that creates enormous anxiety for the couple. Many couples are guilt stricken because they're convinced they've brought the problem on themselves. (Part of the reason for the soaring incidence of infertility is the rapid spread of sexually transmitted diseases, such as Gonorrhea and Chlamydia infection.)

These worries are compounded by a sense of frustration and helplessness. Being shunted from doctor to doctor, taking fertility drugs, undergoing surgery, and contributing an endless stream of semen samples is enough to drive any couple crazy.

The search for a solution begins to override every other purpose in life. The more confusing the proffered medical advice, the more obsessed the couple becomes. Solving the problem becomes a matter of life and death. There must be an answer somewhere so the couple continues relentlessly, going from doctor to doctor, investigating every new avenue that might offer hope.

Outsiders frequently misconstrue the fertility "obsession" as neurotic a desperate desire to have a child. In reality, the obsession is to find an answer to learn for certain what causes the problem and what can be done about it. If treatment is possible, what are the chances of success? How long will it take? How much will it cost? This vital information that can profoundly affect every aspect of a couple's life is sometimes never provided.

In some religions, hope is expressed by the symbol of an anchor. Infertile couples are looking for such an anchor and will go to any lengths to find it. Today, couples travel to special clinics in all corners of America Los Angeles, New York, Virginia, New Orleans and to all points of the Globe, particularly to England and Australia, where groundbreaking research is being done.

As chaotic as the picture seems, there is hope. Out of chaos, experts are beginning to fashion reason. In the last ten years scientists have been able to grasp significant facts about reproduction that had eluded them in the past. Even though institutional funding has been denied, researchers and fertility specialists in the private sector have made brilliant advances in the areas of drug therapy and microsurgery.

Thanks to prizewinning research in chemistry, we can now identify the unique brain chemical that triggers reproductive hormones in both men and women. Fertility drugs have been developed that offer hope to thousands of couples who only a few years ago would have remained hopelessly infertile. Technology also has come to grips with infertility. The marriage of the microscope and the surgical laser has made it possible to rebuild delicate reproductive structures within the pelvic cavity. These two advances high technology and applied science have catapulted infertility science into the twenty first century.

If the new super techniques do not succeed, the couple still has a wide array of "fertility enhancement techniques" from which to choose: artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization, embryo transfer, and others. The immediate future holds tremendous promise for infertile couples. Yet there remains the problem of getting the technology to the people who need it. Most couples must do their own research. After years of struggle, the average infertile couple knows as much about infertility as some physicians, and possibly more.

The objective of this site is to give you a running start: to provide under one cover the latest and the best that infertility science has to offer. There is hope, and there are answers. Today, the odds of a successful pregnancy have been tipped solidly in your favor.