What Is Infertility?

By: Raymond Chang, M.D. with Elena Oumano, Ph.D.

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For a couple, infertility is defined as being unable to become pregnant after one year of steady, unprotected intercourse. Infertility is the reduced ability to have a child. Infertility is not sterility; that is, a lifetime verdict that means you will never have a child. Infertility leaves open the possibility that you can have a child at some point. In the up to 20 percent of all couples who are infertile, only 1 to 2 percent of them are actually sterile.

For most couples, infertility is a temporary crisis, one that can be overcome. Even better news, once you are armed with information and strategies, your chances of a pregnancy that results in the birth of a healthy child will be even greater.

In general, several possible factors hamper fertility in women:

Lack of ovulation (release of eggs from the ovary) due to hormonal imbalance or cysts in the ovary
Failure of tubes to carry eggs from the ovary to the uterus, often due to scarring (adhesions) of the fallopian tubes caused by endometriosis, or infections such as gonorrhea and chlamydia, or prior surgery
Irregular ovulation accompanied by poor cervical mucus that damages sperm or impedes their progress
Implantation issues in which the embryo cannot implant itself in the uterine lining, caused by fibroid tumors, endometriosis, adhesions, infection, or prior surgery
The subtle, energetic mind-body imbalances that conventional medicine rarely diagnoses or treats

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Common causes of infertility in men include:

Sexual dysfunction (erectile dysfunction or impotence)
Low sperm count (too few sperm in the ejaculate fluid)
Low sperm motility (the sperm are not good swimmers)
Malformation of the sperm
Blocked sperm ducts

No single fertility treatment is ever successful for everyone, but research has shown that a combination of simple treatments and precautionary measures can greatly enhance a couple's odds of conceiving. Traditional Chinese medicine can be very helpful, either by itself or in partnership with modern Western medical techniques.

© 2007 , Raymond Chang, M.D. with Elena Oumano, Ph.D.
from What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Getting Pregnant: Boost Your Fertility with the Best of Traditional and Alternative Therapies, Warner Wellness, an imprint of Warner Books, Inc., 2007

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The author of What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Getting Pregnant: Boost Your Fertility with the Best of Traditional and Alternative Therapies, Raymond Chang, M.D. is an internationally respected physician-acupuncturist uniquely trained in traditional Chinese medicine as well as contemporary Western medicine. He is an acknowledged pioneer in the field of alternative and complementary therapy programs. He trained at Yale Waterbury and New York Cornell Hospital, and attended at Memorial Sloane Kettering Cancer Center for more than a decade. He currently attends at New York Presbyterian Hospital and serves as the director of the Meridian Medical Group. Dr. Chang is the president of the Institute of East West Medicine and lectures frequently on the topics of alternative cancer, infertility and herbal treatments.