Fertility Center, Bangkok Hospital Phuket
Having a baby can add a missing gap towards your complete family, and it is very crucial for couples to have good family planning prior to child conception. Most couples will look forward to pregnancy soon after contraceptive discontinuation. In reality, not all but 85% of expecting couples will achieve baby conception over the first year of regular unprotected sex. In some couples, unsuccessful attempts may lead to stress and worries in their families.
What is “Infertility”?
A situation in which a couple fails to achieve fertilization over the course of 1 year, given regular sexual intercourse, or 2 – 3 times per week
Causes of Infertility
It can be caused by female factors, male factors, or both female and male factors. Studies found that male factors accounted for 30% of infertility problems while female factors accounted for 40-50%. Female-male and unidentified factors account for the rest. Basic examinations can reveal the causes of infertility.
Male infertility can be caused by congenital abnormality of male reproductive organs that make sexual intercourse improbable, chromosomal abnormality resulting in unusually low sperm concentration or even failure to produce sperms, exposure to certain chemicals (pesticide, lead, benzene components, use of certain drugs), habitual smoking, some underlying diseases that affect fertility (e.g. diabetes), mumps or epidemic parotitis in childhood, or an accident.
Female infertility can be caused by old age, habitual smoking, inability to have sexual intercourse due to congenital abnormality of female reproductive organs, abnormal uterine growths or a uterine myoma, blocked fallopian tubes, intrauterine adhesion or endometriosis, dysfunctional ovulation, ovarian cysts, or hormonal abnormality that affects ovulation.
Infertility treatment is diverse nowadays, depending on several factors including couples’ underlying conditions, age, and other circumstances. Three major solutions to infertility are use of medications, a surgical approach, and the Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART).
The Fertility Center, Bangkok Hospital Phuket has gathered statistics in infertility treatment to show success rates of Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART), using In Vitro Fertilization (IVF), as sorted in 4 age groups as follows:
- Woman age under 29 years
- Woman age 30 – 34 years
- Woman age 35 – 39 years
- Woman age over 40 years
