Infertility risk factor in women and men

Did not get son after married? 

Women or men fault?, Why did it happen?

I hope this info can answer for those who ever in this situation. The answer are based on science and health facts. Enjoy reading it 

    Do you ever wonder that becoming parents is one of the dreams too. Not everyone has the desires of becoming a parent, but for those who want, being unable to conceive a child is a painful reality. If the failures to conceive occur, it will be a major stressor for couples who really have desire to get their own child. Most people don’t take this problem seriously because they don’t know that the problem is related to infertility. According to the World Health Organization, the clinical definition of infertility is “a disease of the reproductive system that is caused by the failure to achieve a clinical pregnancy or inability of a sexually active person after a year or more of usual unprotected sexual intercourse. Infertility is a significant and common problem for both men and women as men infertility is responsible for 20–30% of infertility cases, while 20–35% are due to women infertility which approximately 9% of couples throughout the world are infertile with 56% of couples need treatment (Boivin et al., 2007). Even though tremendous steps have been made in treating this relatively risk condition in order to overcome this problem, infertility is typically not openly discussed.

    Menstrual or ovulationary disorder problems are one of the most common leading factors of infertility especially in women. Ovulation disorders are a spectrum of conditions in which it affects the woman’s endocrine system which controls the hormones and the patterns of ovulation as the hormones regulate the menstrual cycle and ovulation. According to an article stated by The World Health Organization (WHO), ovulation disorders are the cause of infertility in around 25% of couples who have difficulty conceiving. Abnormal ovulation or also known as anovulation means that the failure of the ovary to release egg over a period of time generally exceeding 3 months is often the underlying cause of irregular periods. The normal functioning ovary releases the egg every 25-28 days. Having irregular periods and menstrual disorder problems are conditions that disrupt normal menstrual cycle in women include amenorrhea (lack of menstruation), oligomenorrhea (infrequent periods), and menorrhagia (prolonged or heavy periods). Irregular ovulation can be caused due to many issues due to an imbalance of luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and an injury to the hypothalamus or pituitary gland. For ovulation to occur, a part of the brain called the hypothalamus prompts the nearby pituitary gland to secrete hormones that trigger the ovaries to ripen eggs. Other hormonal conditions that can affect fertility include thyroid problems, diabetes, underweight, obesity, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and premature ovarian failure (POF). Apart from this, women's age is one of the factors which is also a significant factor in fertility rates.Pregnancy opportunities for women over the age of 40 are only five per cent per menstrual cycle. Aging eggs are considered the cause of the decline in the percentage of pregnancies at that age.

    The other factors that can affect infertility is chemotherapy treatment. Chemotherapy is a drug treatment that uses powerful chemicals to kill fast-growing cells in the body. Chemotherapy is most often used to treat cancer since cancer cells grow and multiply much more quickly than most cells in the body.Through chemotherapy is an effective way to treat many types of cancer, chemotherapy treatment also carries a risk of side effects such as infertility. Some chemotherapy drugs are more likely than others to cause infertility. Whether your infertility is temporary or permanent depends partly on your drugs and doses (Chiarelll, Marrett & Darlington, 1999). For women, chemotherapy (especially alkylating agents) can affect the ovaries, causing them to stop releasing eggs and estrogen. This is called primary ovarian insufficiency (POI). Sometimes POI is temporary and your menstrual periods and fertility return after treatment. This happens in about a third of all women whose periods stop because of chemotherapy. It takes about 6 to 12 months for your periods to go back to normal. Other times, damage to your ovaries is permanent and fertility doesn’t return. Chemotherapy can also lower the number of healthy eggs in the ovaries. Women who are closer to the age of natural menopause may have a greater risk of infertility (Turan & Oktay, 2014). Besides,for men, not all chemotherapy drugs affect your ability to father a child. But some drugs can reduce the number of sperm and their motility to fertilise an egg. Chemotherapy drugs also can affect the nerves in the genital area. This can make it difficult to get or maintain an erection and it can affect the ejaculation process. Fertility problems from cancer treatment may be temporary or permanent. Some men regain the ability to produce sperm after treatment. This generally takes 1 to 3 years, but can sometimes take longer. Some men have an only partial recovery, with low sperm counts, and some men never recover sperm production.(Gaffan et al, 2003).

    Other than that, the usage of tobacco and alcohol is also one of the infertility risk factors for both men and women. Tobacco and alcohol have a range of short and long term health effects for both men and women. Alcohol has been shown to affect male and female infertility, but the level of consumption associated with risk is unclear. Women who abuse alcohol are having low chances of becoming pregnant. In men, alcohol can affect fertility by altering sperm count, size, shape, and motility. Regular heavy drinking can reduce female fertility by interrupting menstrual cycle and ovulation; causing changes to ovarian function, known as amenorrhea and anovulation. Besides, alcohol also will change the hormone levels of testosterone, estradiol and luteinizing hormone. In men, heavy drinking affects fertility by lowering testosterone levels, shrinking the testes, causing early ejaculation and changing the shape, size, and movement of healthy sperm. Chemicals such as nicotine, cyanide and carbon monoxide in cigarette smoke speed up the loss of eggs. Furthermore, maternal smoking increases the risk of low birth weight and birth defects and women who smoke reach menopause earlier than non-smokers. Heavy smoking (≥20 cigarettes per day) by fathers at the time of conception increases the child’s risk of childhood leukaemia and shortens reproductive lifespan of daughters. Male smokers can suffer decreased sperm quality with lower counts and motility and increased numbers of abnormally-shaped sperm. According to an article, more than one-third of male adults worldwide use tobacco and approximately 30% of women of reproductive age smoke cigarettes. (Andrea Sansone, 2018) 

       To conclude, both men and women can contribute infertility problems. They need to be aware about the risk factors that may cause them to get infertility problems. The risk factors were exposed to ensure that people who are experiencing the infertility problems can be remedied and seek timely medical intervention.To the people who face the infertility problems, they need to seek the doctors for help immediately at any time and never be shy to talk and discuss the issue. Early diagnosis of an infertility problem may improve health and increase the productivity of the patients. The doctors may refer the patients to the reproductive endocrinologist which is a doctor who specializes in infertility. Most important things are to know the infertility risk factors for men and women so that they can prevent themselves from all those risks . In order to prevent the infertility problems, several infertility risk factors for men and women need to be taken seriously such as menstrual disorder problem, the effect of chemotherapy treatment and the usage of tobacco and alcohol.