One Can Recover From Infertility In The End

By Barbara Patridge


The inability to reproduce offspring or condition of a lady being unable to complete full term carrying a baby is called infertility. There are many causes and effects of this condition, some of which are medically induced. There has been a general rise in this shortcoming since 1980.

There exist two levels of the condition. These are primary and secondary sterility. Couples having primary sterility have never conceived whereas those in the secondary category only have difficulty conceiving in subsequent occasions to the first conception. These two levels only relate to one couple at a time.

The prevalence of barrenness has taken various courses in its evolution to date. Approximately six per cent of couples, especially women, have this problem but it is still unresolved in them. Across the countries, one of every seven couples is faced with this challenge. Many believe that women increasingly become barren as they get older. It may be a complication in the man, the woman or even both and thus should be treated fairly amongst social circles.

Barrenness may be caused by several factors in one or either sex. As such, it may be due to distortion of the DNA, Robertsonian translocation and other genetic factors in one party, factors of general nature like diabetes mellitus and disorders of the thyroids, hypopitruitism and other hypothalamic-pituitary factors as well as environmental related factors for instance tobacco smoking, inhalation of chemical dusts and inception of toxins such as glue into the body.

In males, if their semen quality is low, they have a low sperm count, if they suffer from testicular malformations, hormone imbalance or experience blockage of the duct system, they may end up suffering from sterility. In females, blockage of fallopian tubes, being underweight and overweight, experiencing inability to ovulate, uterine complications and infections such as Chlamydia and development of scar tissue may lead to the problem.

What causes inability to reproduce is what determines the treatment method to be used. The two broad categories of treatment are family treatments and counseling. At-home kits for conception and use of assisted natural conception methods are the ones majorly used in most cases. Medically, fertility medication such as surgeries and use of medical devices, in vitro fertilization and several technologically assisted methods are applied. Some treatments such as assisted hatching and medical tourism can also suffice.

Emergent ethical issues in this complication include the costly nature of therapies and medication, exemption of the same in insurance packages, the argument that facilities used to treat the defect could be used in better alternative services, people being against destruction of the embryo, many cases of premature and multiple births as well as the fact that these problem is likely to be transmitted to offspring.

Sterility has both societal and personal repercussions. Psychologically, effects include a lot of anxiety in marriage, marriage discord, depression, disregard for motherhood, loss of anticipated life, feeling of loss, emotional stress and disregard for religion and its doctrines. Socially there is eruption of stigma, rejection, avoiding the issue, inheritance issues and loss of friends.

In developing countries, inability to reproduce has grave implications on the individual or couple since child production is used as a social pillar and a basis for family income generation. One is likely to suffer stigmatization and abandonment by spouse and family. In most cases, it is assumed that the woman is the cause of the problem.




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