Does Unexplained Infertility is Always What It Seems? How Can IVF, Laparoscopy, & Other Treatment Options Help with It?
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What is the actual definition of infertility?
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What is unexplained infertility?
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Diagnosis…it’s complicated
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Treatment Options
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IVF & Laparoscopy
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What is the actual definition of infertility?
What is the actual definition of infertility?
Infertility is defined as the inability to conceive after about one year of appropriate and well-timed efforts. Infertility affects about 10% of women of 15 to 44. For those desiring a baby, the inability to conceive could be devastating, and the drive to seek fertility treatment is completely understandable.
Usually, the first step along with the path is a dedicated evaluation of the couple. In some cases, women may have ovulation issues, blocked fallopian tubes, or abnormalities in the uterine cavity, like fibroids which prevent an embryo from implanting.
In almost, half of the cases, when the issues are identified, it is with the male partner, and often a problem with the sperm. But in 15-20 of infertile couples, no reason is identified, leading to unexplained infertility.
What is unexplained infertility?
Unexplained infertility precisely sounds like, no clear reason has been identified for why a couple can not conceive a baby.
Unexplained infertility is frustrating for couples as well as doctors. Without a specific reason why a woman is having trouble getting pregnant, it is quite challenging to choose a fertility treatment that has a high chance of success.
What to do when all fertility tests are normal, but you still are not pregnant? Unexplained infertility has been affecting roughly 15-30% of couples seeking fertility help. This blog post shares what we can do when everything is right, but still going wrong.
Common Causes for Unexplained Infertility:
- Anatomical abnormalities—such as retroved uterus/tilted womb
- Abnormal follicle development
- Abnormal and trapped eggs
- Luteal phase abnormalities
- Problems with the endometrium
- Problems with a fertilized egg developing into a healthy embryo
Diagnosis…it’s complicated
Unexplained infertility diagnosis, have a comprehensive infertility evaluation including various tests such as semen analysis, confirmation of normal ovarian reserve, regular ovulation, evaluation of uterine cavity and fallopian tubes, etc.
Patients under 35 age need all these testing done after at least one year of trying to conceive without a success. And for patients over 35 years of age, after 6 months of inability to conceive. Evaluation is done to screen if there are any underlying medical conditions such as uncontrolled thyroid.
After all the tests are being done and everything can still appear to be normal. The reason or cause for infertility is unexplained doesn’t mean a couple is never going to have a baby, but it just means it is taking longer and going from the simple to the most complex.
Treatment Options
There are several avenues one can explore to get pregnant with unexplained fertility and they include:
Ovulation Tracking & Lifestyle Changes:
A good start to improving your chances of conception is to make some simple lifestyle changes. Being obese/overweight, too much consumption of alcohol or caffeine, smoking can impact your ability to become pregnant.
Cutting back such unhealthy habits combined with a balanced and healthy diet could aid in excess weight loss, and tracking down your ovulation can improve your chances of conceiving. tracking down your ovulation aids you to ensure that you can time intercourse just prior you ovulate and when your fertility is at its peak.
Ovulation induction
If lifestyle changes couldn’t able to produce results, then you need to take your fertility efforts to the next level while maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Taking drugs such as clomid and menopur can help. Ovulation-stimulation medication can help you release more than one egg during your cycle and increase the chances of conception.
IUI-IntraUterine Insemination
Using IntraUterine Insemination in combination with ovulation-inducing drugs or on its own could be another option for infertile couples. In IUI, the male’s sperm is placed in the woman’s uterus to improve the reach of sperms near the fallopian tubes & to ultimately fertilize the egg.
IVF-In Vitro Fertilization
IVF works extremely well for patients who are diagnosed with unexplained infertility. When we do not know in terms of determining what is causing the infertility, the problem may be with the egg and sperm interaction and sperm getting to the egg. IVF could help in identifying the problem as well as treating it.
With IVF, a woman’s eggs are extracted and combined with the ,ale partner’s sperm in the IVF laboratory. After the egg gets fertilized or an embryo gets formed, it is transferred back into the woman’s uterus expecting implantation. Over 7 million pregnancies have been achieved worldwide with IVF.
Laparoscopy
Some cases of unexplained infertility is linked to mild endometriosis, in such cases, the em=endometrial deposits might not be causing pain or may not be directly inferring with ovulation or even the fallopian tubes, but their presence might increase irritation of the reproductive system. And this could be one of the causes for repeated IVF failures.
Some infertility specialists suggest laparoscopic surgery to diagnosis & remove mild endometriosis before IVF is attempted. And others also suggest it after repeated IVF failures.
Just because the proper cause of infertility is unexplained it does not mean it’s untratetable. There are various treatment options that give infertiie couples a good chance of achieving a pregnancy.
If you have been trying to conceive for a while without success, and doing everything right, then its may be time to see a fertility specialist. At MotherToBe fertility clinic, our experienced infertility specialists perform a comprehensive diagnostic evaluation to patients to find the right path to conceive.