What is Infertility?

As defined by The International Committee for Monitoring Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ICMART), infertility is a disease characterized by the failure to establish a clinical pregnancy after 12 months of regular, unprotected sexual intercourse or due to an impairment of a person’s capacity to reproduce either as an individual or with his/her partner. Fertility interventions may be initiated in less than 1 year based on medical, sexual and reproductive history, age, physical findings and diagnostic testing.

Pregnancy is the result of a process that has many steps. To get pregnant:

• A woman’s body must release an egg from one of her ovaries

• A man’s sperm must join with the egg along the way (fertilize).

• The fertilized egg must go through a fallopian tube

• toward the uterus

• The embryo must attach to the inside of the uterus (implantation).

Infertility may result from a problem with any or several of these steps.

Fast Facts

(1) Infertility is a medical disease recognized by the World Health Organization, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, and the American Medical Association that affects men and women equally.

(2) According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 in 8 couples have difficulty getting pregnant or sustaining a pregnancy.

(3) Infertility affects a broad spectrum of prospective parents. No matter what age, race, religion, sexuality, or economic status one is, infertility does not discriminate.

(4) Approximately one-third of infertility is attributed to the female partner, one-third is attributed to the male partner, and one-third is caused by a combination of problems in both partners or is unexplained.