Family Planning & Fertility Education

If a woman can fall pregnant once (or twice) with ease, and carry the pregnancy to term, then she’s fertile and will be able to fall pregnant gain without any issues... right? Not so, says Fulvia Stoltz who explores changing the nature of the conversation

- Fulvia Stoltz

If you ask any woman who’s had to deal with the reality of secondary infertility, she’ll tell you how deeply this notion hurts her. The truth is, the inability to fall pregnant or carry a pregnancy to live birth even after a previous healthy pregnancy and live birth is more common than you might think – and it’s a condition that may become the catalyst for marriage breakdown, family trauma and depression, not to mention a source of financial strain too. So let’s get the facts straight.

IT DOESN’T DISCRIMINATE

There does not appear to be one population group that’s more susceptible than any other. And, according to Dr Merwyn Jacobson, one of the Medical Directors of Vitalab (a specialist fertility clinic in Johannesburg) the global rate of incidence is between 15 and 16 percent of the adult population.

There may be a slightly higher incidence among the lower socioeconomic groups and this is quite likely the result of their lifestyle (they’re less educated about reproductive health, may have a poor diet that affects their fertility and so on).

IT’S ALL IN YOUR AGE

The factors that cause secondary infertility can be split into three groups:

1. Egg factors

2. Sperm factors

3. Mechanical factors having to do with the way the structures in and around the womb and the tubes. For example, endometriosis could affect the healthy function of the uterus.

By far, the most significant factor in secondary fertility is maternal age (egg factors). Jacobson says that a woman who had her first baby easily at age 30 (when her chances of conceiving may fall at 20 percent per month) may find that she cannot fall pregnant again at 35. In those five years, her fertility potential has decreased to about 15 percent per month.