If you’re having trouble getting pregnant, it can feel like you’re all alone in your struggles and anxiety. The fact is, fertility problems are common, affecting millions of women just like you every year.
While there may be some comfort in knowing that other women share similar experiences, what you really want to know is what’s causing your infertility, and what can be done to help you conceive.
At Eve Medical of Miami, our team helps patients understand fertility issues through fertility counseling and comprehensive gynecology exams and evaluations, providing both insight and treatment to help you conceive. Here, we explore five common causes of female infertility that could be making it harder for you to become pregnant.
PCOS is a surprisingly common medical problem that happens when multiple, tiny cysts (fluid-filled sacs) form on your ovaries. These cysts affect the way your ovaries work, interfering with normal ovulation and causing irregular periods.
In addition to making it harder to time conception efforts, PCOS can lead to insulin resistance and obesity, potentially causing hormone imbalances that cause additional difficulties getting pregnant.
Endometriosis is another common condition that can interfere with fertility, occurring when the tissue that normally lines the uterus (the endometrium) grows outside the uterus, often on the exterior uterine wall, the fallopian tubes, or the ovaries.
These tissue growths (called adhesions or endometrial implants) respond the same way as your uterine lining during your menstrual cycle — thickening, bleeding, and causing pain.
Depending where they’re located, endometrial implants can block fallopian tubes or interfere with conception in other ways. While pelvic pain and heavy periods are common symptoms of endometriosis, some women have no symptoms, only learning of the problem during a fertility evaluation ultrasound.
Both endometriosis and PCOS can interfere with ovulation and the release of your eggs, but other disorders can prevent ovulation or cause irregular ovulation, too. Hormonal imbalances due to extreme weight changes or stress can impair ovulation and make it harder to conceive.
Underlying medical conditions can play a role, too. For instance, premature ovarian insufficiency happens when a woman stops ovulating long before “normal” menopause, while problems affecting the hypothalamus gland can cause ovulation to slow or stop entirely, a condition called hypothalamic amenorrhea.
Pelvic inflammatory disease is an infection that typically happens when germs spread from the vaginal opening into your uterus. Untreated sexually transmitted diseases are one potential cause of PID (especially gonorrhea or chlamydia infections), but PID may also occur following childbirth, miscarriage, or abortion.
PID can cause scarring inside the fallopian tubes, preventing an egg from descending during ovulation. Many women don’t know they have scarring until they have trouble conceiving.
Obviously, once you reach menopause and your periods stop, you can no longer become pregnant. But fertility starts declining long before that, beginning at about the age of 30. By the age of 35, the decline speeds up significantly, and once you reach your forties, it becomes exceptionally difficult to conceive without medical assistance.
Older eggs are also more likely to have chromosomal abnormalities, increasing the risk of miscarriage and birth defects. If you’re 35 or older, it’s a good idea to schedule a fertility consultation even before you begin trying to become pregnant.
Infertility can be a frustrating experience, but today, there are many available options to significantly improve your chances of conception. To find out how we can help, request an appointment with our expert team at Eve Medical of Miami in Miami, Florida, today.
