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| Common causes ... | |||||||||||||||||||
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| About 10 percent of reproductive-age couples in the United States will have difficulty getting pregnant. About 30 percent of cases are due to problems in the woman, 30 percent to problems in the man, and the rest to unexplained causes or multiple factors involving both partners. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Treatments / Solutions | |||||||||||||||||||
| Endometriosis -- Possible solutions: fertility drugs with artificial insemination, surgery to remove abnormal tissue or unblock tubes, assisted reproductive technologies (ART), or adoption |
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| Success rates: When fertility drugs to increase egg production are combined with artificial insemination, the success rate is between 8 and 17 percent per cycle. Between 20 and 50 percent conceive after surgery (either naturally or with treatment). And between 20 and 30 percent conceive with ART treatments. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Ovulation problems -- Possible solutions: fertility drugs and in vitro fertilization |
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| Success rates: About 70 to 90 percent of couples ovulate with treatment, and of those, 20 to 60 percent get pregnant. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Poor egg quality -- Possible solutions: in vitro fertilization (IVF) using donor eggs or embryos, or adoption |
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| Success rates: Couples who undergo IVF with donor eggs have about a 30 to 50 percent chance of having a baby per IVF cycle. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Polycystic ovarian syndrome -- Possible solutions: Lifestyle modifications (diet and exercise) or fertility drugs and in vitro fertilization. A new treatment for PCOS uses a diabetes drug called metformin (Glucophage), which can help restore regular ovulation. |
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| Success rates: Many overweight patients who lose 5 to 10 percent of their body weight will start ovulating regularly. About 70 to 90 percent of women who take fertility drugs ovulate, and of those, 20 to 60 percent go on to conceive. Unfortunately, 1 in 5 of those pregnancies miscarries. Fertility drugs also come with a higher risk of multiple births. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Blocked fallopian tubes -- Possible solutions: surgery to open the tubes, or in vitro fertilization (IVF) if surgery fails or the tubes are too badly damaged to repair |
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| Success rates: Conception rates vary widely — from 20 to 60 percent — depending on the location and severity of the blockage and the amount of scar tissue that develops after surgery. Couples who try in vitro fertilization have about a 20 to 40 percent chance of having a baby per IVF cycle. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Sperm allergy -- Possible solutions: artificial insemination or assisted reproductive technologies (ART) |
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| Success rates: About 20 to 40 percent of couples conceive with each cycle of in vitro fertilization. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Unexplained fertility problems -- Possible solutions: fertility drugs combined with artificial insemination or assisted reproductive technologies (ART) procedures such as in vitro fertilization |
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| Success rates: When fertility drugs to increase egg production are combined with artificial insemination, the success rate is between 8 and 17 percent per cycle. After three years of infertility, the chance that a couple will conceive decreases by about 20 to 25 percent each year.. | |||||||||||||||||||
