Monday, August 6, 2007

Facts about Infertility

Since the main purpose of this blog is to keep everyone updated on the process of adoption, I thought I should devote a few posts to what got us to this point. I have gotten my information on this subject from reading, listening to/reading what others have to say and personal experience. I don’t want anyone to feel badly about anything that I might put in this blog or spend any time trying to remember if they did or said something to us during our infertility struggle that might have hurt our feelings. Not everything that I type will be something that I experienced, but maybe something that someone else went through. The purpose of this is to educate you so if a situation like this should happen to come up with other people that you know, hopefully you’ll know how to respond to them in a way that will let them know someone cares about what they are going through.

Definitions:
Infertility (IF): The inability to conceive and/or carry a child to full term in one year.

Primary Infertility (PI): Has never been pregnant or has never carried a child to term.

Secondary Infertility (SI): The ability to achieve pregnancy and carry a pregnancy or pregnancies to term, but then can’t conceive and/or carry another pregnancy to term.

Unexplained Infertility: There is no known medical reason for the couple’s inability to conceive.

There is some debate in infertility circles on what is considered true SI. In my mind I see it as having one or more uneventful pregnancies and then having the inability to have another one. Some people who had a hard time conceiving their first child will consider themselves to have SI after they can’t achieve another pregnancy. In my opinion that is more PI coming around for the second time rather than true “SI”. Still no matter what title you put on yourself infertility is something that is extremely heatbreaking for those experiencing it.

Quick Facts:
About 10% of couples of childbearing age are infertile

Out of that 10% about 1/3 of them are due to male problems, 1/3 are due to female problems and 1/3 are unexplained infertility

About 2/3 of couples who seek treatment go on to have a successful pregnancy

Only about 5-10% will actually need the high-tech method of In-Vitro to achieve pregnancy

Only 13 states require insurance coverage for infertility, a large portion of testing and treatments are paid out of pocket by the patients or other more expensive procedures are done because they are covered by insurance

Infertility affects all aspects of a person’s life - emotionally, physically, financially, etc

Many times a persons work performance and other relationships will suffer because of infertility

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