INFERTILITY: CAUSES AND APPROACH
Infertility is defined as inability for couples desirous of pregnancy to achieve conception after one year of unprotected adequate intercourse. Adequate intercourse on itself is defined as regularly spaced intercourse, occurring at least 3 times in a week.
The human body is programed in such a way that chemicals (hormones) produced in the brain (hypothalamus and pituitary) travel in blood to stimulate the gonads (ovary and testes) which in turn produce hormones which have varying effects on the genital organs that leads to production of gamates (eggs or sperms) which meet, form the embryo that grows to the fetus (baby)
It follows that any problem ranging from things that affect the release, flow, sensitivity to, imbalance in blood levels of these various hormones as well as anatomical abnormalities in the genital track can bring about Infertility.
Infertility can be of male cause and female cause. It could also be primary (couples have never achieved) or secondary (couples have achieved) conception before.
CAUSES OF INFERTILITY
Endocrine disorders like
- Hypothalamic dysfunction
- Pituitary failure
- hyperprolactinemia
- thyroid disorder
- adrenal hyperplasia
- exogenous hormones
Anatomical disorders like
- Congenital abnormalities ( obstruction, atresia or complete absence of sex organ(s)
- Absent /abnormal ovulation and
spermatogenesis
Chromosomal abnormalities
- cryptochidism, turner and Klinefelter syndrome
Sexual dysfunction
- decreased libido, erectile dysfunction
Metabolic diseases
- obesity, liver and kidney disease, diabetes mellitus
Infections
- PID, mump orchitis, chronic genital tract infection,salpingitis and complications from infections.
AN APPROACH TO INFERTILITY
This involves detailed history taking, physical examination and laboratory and radiological evaluation.
Provisional diagnosis is made after history and physical examination and this guides on which Investigations to be done first
Evaluation is done based on individual factor, as determined from history and physical examination.
The initial assessment should put in consideration the cost, the invasiveness, risk and effectiveness of procedure in determining the cause and prognosis, which in turn help in providing guideline for treatment.
WHAT TO DO
Visit a doctor for proper examination and evaluation. And remember to to invite me to your child's naming ceremony.
References:
1 Medscape: Infertility, practical essentials, overview and aetiology
2 medweb: A hand on approach to Infertility
3 Gyncentrum Ostava IVF clinic:How to approach Infertility
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Nice writeup friend,
all you need to work on is your images
your images must be free for commercial use before steemstem can vote on it
you can get free images from wikkimedia commons, pixabay, pexel, unsplash etc
Looking forward to your next post
Thanks much. The images are free. Just added the links. I hope to write more.
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