What is Infertility?
It’s a good question and one that often is surrounded by so much confusion, stress, and anxiety. It’s a question that makes you think of 100 new questions. Life is tough, challenging, and confusing. Going through fertility treatment can certainly add to that. We are here to give you all the information support and guidance you need to make your treatment as smooth as possible.
Technically speaking, infertility is a condition of the human reproductive system that prevents the establishment of clinical pregnancy after 12 months of regular, unprotected sexual intercourse if the female is under the age of 35 and 6 months if the female is 35 years of age or older.
Is infertility common?
Interestingly, infertility is quite a common medical diagnosis. In fact, roughly 12% or ⅛ couples of reproductive age have difficulty getting pregnant and could be clinically diagnosed with infertility. Yes, that’s right. You are not alone, and thanks to the wonderful community of TTC brothers and sisters at CNY Fertility, you don’t have to go through your fertility struggles alone.
Most of us go through life with an understanding of the reproductive system imparted to us during our sex-ed courses in jr. high or in an introductory biology class in our college days. If you’re like the vast majority of those coming to us for information or fertility treatment, there’s a good chance that you haven’t had a review of the biological systems that make this miracle a possibility.
Why do I have infertility?
It’s a valid question, but at CNY Fertility we like to say YOU ARE FERTILE. Only, you are experiencing infertility. We’ve heard it time and time again, “I thought getting pregnant was easy.” Our society sure makes it sounds like it’s the easiest thing in the world to do. In fact, most fertility and sex education courses including our sex ed classes in school seem to be focused on avoiding pregnancy and forget that the reproductive system is, in fact, a very sensitive system with many interesting an nuanced details.
Partially because of this, infertility is often a misunderstood topic. When you consider the complexity involved in human reproduction, you begin to realize it’s a miracle that we exist at all. That a tiny oocyte (the egg) – a cell the size of a grain of sand – and a mature human sperm cell (which is one hundred times smaller than the oocyte) manage to find each other and combine to create a human child, the most precious and miraculous creation known, is almost hard to fathom.
To drastically oversimplify things, the male and female reproductive system must both independently execute a vast network of crucial biological events to produce healthy sperm and egg cells and maintain a very sensitive internal environment for the sperm and egg to meet, embryo to implant, and fetus to develop. Any breakdown in this process during the 9 + months of this beautiful process including but not limited to structural anomalies, hormonal imbalances, inflammation, genetic anomalies, and even poor timing of intercourse—can result in failed conception or delivery. Not to mention, age is still a major determining factor to the success of any treatment. In simple terms, it’s best not to wait when seeking fertility treatment.
The great news is that you are in the right place. Knowledge is power. Our team of reproductive endocrinologists and fertility specialists are capable of treating all causes of infertility from the “routine,” to the medically complex.
We hope that our team of doctors, nurses, and staff members, this page, and the rest of our website provide for you the most comprehensive resource you can trust. We are finding that our clients today know more about fertility than ever before and we encourage every one of our clients to educate themselves about the process they are going through.
Remember, we are here for YOU.
