Fertility: S01 E20 – Unexplained Infertility – Dr. Foulk

Hello this is Dr. Russell Foulk at the Nevada Center for Reproductive Medicine today’s subject we’re going to address is a topic called unexplained infertility. The reason we’re talking about it is it often invokes a lot of questions and patience a lot of people think that if they’ve been diagnosed with unexplained infertility there’s no reason for infertility but of course that’s not true if there is no reason than they would be fertile so the definition of unexplained infertility simply means that if you look at all the reasons for infertility and can’t find the reason it’s called unexplained there still a reason it’s just not explained by the common test that you do for your fertility so let’s go through that for a minute. The common reasons for infertility related in one of three things has to do with either something wrong with the sperm something wrong with the eggs or something wrong with the uterus. so we commonly test those by doing test on the sperm called the semen analysis, test on the eggs like hormones and cycle control and test of the uterus on the tubes called Hysterosalpingogram. In about 20% of couples all three of those things look completely normal yet they’re still suffering from infertility that’s called unexplained infertility. Again it means that you can’t explain it but there’s still an explanation you just have to dig a little deeper so the way you manage it is you say what we know there’s an egg we know there’s a sperm we know there’s a uterus and it’s just a matter of them functionally coming together so it’s a dysfunctional problem of those three components so we do as we help those processes along and isolate were the problems could lie for example if we think that one cause of unexplained infertility is that the sperm can’t swim well through the cervix as an example then we simply put the sperm past that point that’s called an intrauterine insemination if we think the problem lies with the function of the Fallopian tubes then we’ll put the sperm inside the fallopian tube and make sure that there’s an egg on the outside of the fallopian tube so that the only thing we rely on now is the function of the fallopian tube if we think the tube is working then patients get pregnant if a patient doesn’t get pregnant we know the causes the fallopian tube a very common reason for this for example is endometriosis that’s one of the more common reasons for unexplained infertility because it’s an inflammatory condition in the pelvis that can compromise tubule function if the tubes are unable to pick up eggs for example they might be open by a dye test but they’re unable to bring the egg and the sperm together so when you defined the tube and isolate is a functional unit then you’ll know if that’s the true cause of infertility. If the tube is not working then doing inseminations are not going to work cuz they’re insemination relies on the 2 to bring the egg and the sperm together so not situation you move on to something like in vitro fertilization or surgery to try to fix that tube but the most important thing with unexplained infertility is to understand that there is an explanation it’s just a matter of how deep you look and how you define the processes to find where that reason is. The great news about unexplained infertility is it’s extremely treatable because depending on where the problems lie there’s a step for every dysfunction as I mentioned if there’s an issue with the cervix and you bypass the cervix then you’re going to get pregnant if there’s an issue with the tubes and you bypass the tubes then you’re going to get pregnant so every cause of unexplained infertility is treatable, except for a few such as if eggs are unhealthy so if healthy 45 year old woman comes in everything looks normal but she’s not getting pregnant it could be because the eggs are no longer healthy she may not be able to get pregnant if she doesn’t have healthy eggs unless uses eggs from somewhere else so there is a treatment for it but it might require some sacrifice to achieve that but again the most important thing to remember is there is a reason an explanation for any unexplained infertility. So search out what that causes and make sure you understand it ask your doctor for the reason for your infertility and make sure your treat treating at appropriately and once you do everyone succeeds so that’s the the most important thing to understand about a very vague and hard to understand condition to know that is treatable and it is explainable despite its title and as long as you approach it with the right group of physicians and in treating practitioners you’re going to succeed if you have any questions give our office a holler or call our office at the Nevada Center for Reproductive Medicine will be happy to help you through it.