Trouble with Baby-Making: Understanding Infertility
by Marissa Camilon, MD 2011 | camilon@myhousecallmd.com
What is infertility? When should you see a doctor?
In a world where one woman can become famous for having eight children and celebrities can have children at practically any age, some people lose sight of why this aspect of medicine even exists. Despite the media’s glamorization of the subject, infertility is not a condition taken lightly by the medical community. Infertility is a serious condition, just like diabetes, asthma or cancer, with proven medical treatments available. Many of us take the ability to become pregnant for granted; something we think happens with the blink of an eye. We have to remember that the chance of becoming pregnant is 20% per month of unprotected intercourse (not 100%). As physicians, we begin to investigate infertility after a couple tries a year of regular, unprotected intercourse that does not lead to a pregnancy. We pick one year as the cutoff because 85% of couples will conceive within that time frame. If you and your partner have been trying for that long, or even longer in some cases, it may be time to see a Reproductive Endocrinologist and Infertility specialist.
