4 Things We Want Women to Know About Fertility

Each year in the United States, more than 3.6 million babies enter the world, and you’re anxious to welcome one of your own. Try as you might, however, you’re having trouble, and you’re beginning to suspect there’s an infertility issue.

The first thing we want to point out is that you’re far from alone — the World Health Organization reports that 1 in 6 adults around the globe are affected by infertility during their lifetime. While it may provide some comfort to know that hundreds of millions of people are sharing your frustration, it isn’t exactly solving your problem. 

At Women’s Clinic of the Rio Grande Valley, our team, which is led by board-certified women’s health expert Dr. Fernando Otero, believes the first step toward building the family of your dreams is to educate yourself about fertility issues. 

Below, we get into a few important points about fertility, which we hope will guide you moving forward.

1. Infertility is not just a woman’s issue

There’s a lot that needs to happen for a woman to get pregnant, and both sides of the equation — a male sperm and a female egg — are equally as important.

All cases of infertility are divided into three categories:

1. One-third of infertility is on the female side
2. One-third is on the male side
3. One-third is on both sides or for causes unknown

So, if you're assuming that your inability to get pregnant starts with you, the odds are equally as good that there’s an issue with your partner, or with both of you, or with neither of you. We bring this up because it’s important for your investigation to include both the female and male reproductive sides.

2. A variety of things can cause infertility in women

Since we’re a practice that focuses on women’s health, we’re going to review a few common issues that cause fertility problems in women, which include:

• Polycystic ovary syndrome, which is the leading cause of infertility in women
• Menstrual irregularities
• Endometriosis
• Insufficient ovulation
• Poor egg quality or egg count
• Pelvic inflammatory disease
• Structural issues

Uterine fibroids, which are incredibly common among women, can lead to pregnancy issues, but they aren’t common drivers of infertility.

3. Sometimes there are unknown fertility issues

Let’s circle back to the third of infertility cases that stem from both the male and the female or from causes unknown. It’s quite common for women to come to us with fertility issues but after extensive testing, we find nothing. Then, months or years later, they suddenly become pregnant. We know this isn’t a satisfactory solution, but we want you to know that you should never lose hope.

4. A woman’s age matters

More couples are waiting to have children, which means more women are having babies in their 30s and 40s. Your peak fertility occurs in your late teens and 20s and goes down after that. So, if you’re trying to have a child after the age of 35, be patient.

And, if and when you do get pregnant, expect that we’ll categorize you as high-risk pregnancy due to what we call an advanced maternal age.

Still, we don’t want to discourage you one bit. Plenty of couples and women have healthy babies later in life; it just may take a little more time.

We hope we’ve provided you with a basic backdrop for infertility. If you’d like to start investigating where your own fertility issues may come from, you can start by contacting one of our offices in McAllen or Edinburg, Texas, to schedule an appointment.