Why do couples who have successfully conceived and have given birth to a child earlier on, suddenly experience infertility afterward?
What really is this secondary infertility?
What are the causes and is there any remedy?
Secondary infertility is truly a condition that have confounded many over the years. Many couples who have this condition cannot really understand how after successfully conceiving and delivering their first child with ease afterwards discover that conceiving another child is a problem. To them this is altogether strange!
To understand secondary infertility we need to understand first of all that this is a situation where a couple are unable to conceive after a year of unprotected sexual intercourse even when they have successfully delivered their first child. In most cases, the couple may not take this to be a problem until it is too late. It is therefore important that a couple, who desire to get pregnant after the first pregnancy but could not after the first year of unprotected sexual intercourse, should seek medical help at once.
The Causes of Secondary Infertility
It has been discovered from studies, that the causes of secondary infertility are multifaceted either coming from the man or woman. However, the primary cause is age.
These studies have shown that every woman is equipped from birth with the precise number of egg cells which will mature as the woman age. Over a period of years, these eggs are released for fertilization. The release of these egg cells peaks when the woman is at her midyears. After this period menopause gradually sets in (menopause is simply the period when the egg cells are either lacking or absent since they have been released and used previously).
Even when there are some egg cells left during the latter years towards menopause, they are likely to be unhealthy and incapable of becoming fertilized, even with well-timed intercourse. At these years (age 45 and above), the possibility of forming a zygote is only 6%.
While we may presume that some more eggs may be left from the whole batch, they still would not be able to fertilize since they have been for long, exposed to environmental hazards that are contributors to the degeneration of egg quality.
It is therefore clear from the above that where a couple had their first child at a late age, they may become victims of secondary infertility because of the age of the woman.
On the part of the male partner, further studies have indicated that the main cause is the lessened quality of sperm cells. Of course, this is mainly also as a result of the age of the man. Once the quality of the sperm cells is weakened, they will find it difficult to fertilize the eggs if there is still any left in the woman.
Besides this issue of age, secondary infertility could also set in if there are any changes like the introduction of a new partner. It doesn’t matter if you have succeeded in producing a child previously, if a new partner is introduced and there is a change in the new partners nature, this may severely affect the capacity to conceive once more.
Finally, we can also view some troubles that have to do with pathology as some of the reasons for secondary infertility. Essentially, these problems focus mainly on the interruption of any of the vital steps by which fertilization occurs.
For example, for fertilization to take place a healthy sperm and egg cells must be produced. Once there is a problem in any of these areas, it means that either of the couple may have developed secondary infertility.
Again, a supportive environment is necessary to hold the fertilized egg. Once there is no favorable place to nurse the zygote, there is no sense of fertilizing the egg and sperm cells.
From the above it is very clear that there are different conditions that may responsible for secondary infertility. Most of these conditions may develop after the first successful pregnancy. If you’re therefore experiencing secondary infertility right now, it is important that you seek medical help to determine the true cause so that the correct remedy can be applied.