Infertility is often very emotionally draining for patients. Not only are they faced with the news that conceiving a child is only possible through medical treatment, they are also overwhelmed with a lot of new information. New medical terminology and recommendations for treatments and tests that are unfamiliar can be very intimidating for the newly diagnosed couple. The specialists at the Advanced for Infertility and Reproductive Medicine believe in creating a one on one relationship with patients. We have found that the most successful outcomes occur when the patient is well-informed and can play an active role in determining their infertility treatment. We value this interactive warm and ethical relationship with each patient in an environment where questions are welcome and encouraged.

This section of the webpage offers general educational information about infertility. More elaborate information is available in our special educational video series (4 volumes), that are viewed in anticipation of the first visit. Here, you will find basic information about diagnoses, testing procedures and treatment of infertility.

• Infertility: General Overview and Diagnoses
• Evaluation of Infertility: Testing Procedures
• Treatment Pathways

Infertility affects 10-20% of couples in the United States affecting more than 6 million people. Inability to conceive can be very distressing to a woman and her partner and can affect individuals in various ways. Infertility evaluation and treatment should be sought after one year of trying with unprotected intercourse for couples in which the female is under 30 and six months of trying for couples in which the female is over 30.

The broad categories for causes of infertility are inability to ovulate (failure to release an egg from the ovary), or poor egg quality (due to aging or other genetic factors), tubal disease (where fallopian tubes that carry the egg from the uterus to the uterus are damaged), poor development of the egg and the early fertilized embryo due to a short or poor luteal support (luteal phase defect), endometriosis (a condition where tissue that normally lines the inside the uterus is found outside the uterus within the abdomen), and abnormal sperm numbers and/or function (male factor). Infertility can also be totally unexplained.

Each of these categories can be the result of several medical conditions. In addition, a woman may have no difficulty conceiving but may repeatedly miscarry her pregnancies (recurrent miscarriage). This can be even more stressful than infertility. Genetic abnormalities can also cause infertility and /or recurrent miscarriage. Genetic abnormalities may affect reproductive potential without causing any other visible abnormality.

There are several treatment options available for infertility, but treatment must be indivualized to be effective for each patient. It is therefore imperative to have adequate knowledge of the usefulness and limitations of each type of treatment. Increased public awareness of treatment options, of the availability of assisted reproductive technologies (ART), and of advances in research have led to an increase in the use of reproductive services. The number of women using infertility services has risen from 600,000 in 1968 to more than 5 million as of 2002. As the public awareness of the issues has increased, the stigma of having infertility has significantly declined.