Infertility In Women Essay

Infertility in women is defined as the inability to become pregnant after one year of unprotected sexual intercourse. This can be caused by multiple factors, specifically age or anomalies within the female genetalia. On the one hand, infertility through age is the most common form of infertility, since all women are born with finite numbers of ova which decrease in amount over the years. For example, according to Wallace, Hamish B., and Thomas W. Kelsey, women only possess 12% of their initial amount of ova by the age of 30, and the figure decreases rapidly until menopause. Therefore it is evident that infertility due to age is caused solely due to the decreasing amount of ova in the ovaries, which in turn decreases the probability of fertilization. On the other hand, infertility due to anomalies in the body can be caused by a variety of medical conditions, such as obstructed oviducts, the growth of tissue outside of the uterus or, more importantly, issues with the cervical mucus. To be perfectly candid, most genital anomalies associated with female

In many cases, infertility is caused by the mucus becoming too thick and impenetrable, or rather it becoming too acidic to be hospitable to sperm. Both are caused by an increase in progesterone, produced by the corpus luteum after ovulation, and can also be caused by an intake of fertility drugs. This is because progesterone prepares the uterus for the accommodation of a embryo, and thus must stop all spermatozoa from penetrating the cervix, which is done by increasing mucus acidity and thickness. Hence, an increase in such a hormone prevents any sperm from entering the uterus and thereby causes