A Guide to Coping with Secondary Infertility

Most couples think that infertility means they can never have children. What is often not discussed is that a majority of the infertility cases in the U.S.A. are persons who already have children. How confusing. I found out that my own sister had a condition called secondary infertility. Her doctor told her than at the end of the last century there were over 2 million cases of secondary infertility treatment underway just in the United States. Estimates are that by the end of 2005 there were nearly three million.

The textbook definition of secondary infertility is the inability to have a second child. My sister, who works with social services in a western state, says not enough attention is paid to these types of cases. The primary cause of the problem appears to be aging, according to her doctor. There is a problem with mental health in some cases as these women do not get the same care and attention from doctors, from society or even their families concerning this problem. That is primarily because rarely are they thought to really be infertile, given they have already had a child. Additionally, this is not just a condition for women only. There are more than a few men with male fertility conditions as well.

Many doctors are not at all surprised by the apparent increase in the number of secondary infertility treatment cases. In fact they disagree with the conclusion that the statistics support any increase at all. That is because the real change, the real cause is two fold.

More women are waiting till later in life to have children. As there are at least one dozen reproductive system problems just in women that can contribute to secondary infertility it is not surprising to see the number of reported cases of the need for infertility treatments increase.

Older couples trying to conceive children are in second marriages. Men also have a range of increased problems with low sperm count and mobility of what are present that contributes to the problem.