Evaluation of Infertility

What is Infertility?

While conceiving a pregnancy is an easy and taken for granted matter for the majority of couples, approximately 1 in 6 couples require some form of medical help to get pregnant. This may range from simple medical advice to sophisticated IVF procedure.
Conventional definition of infertility is failure to conceive a pregnancy after 12 months of unprotected regular sexual intercourse. The word barren or sterile has been used when the person is incapable of producing an offspring.

But today, through the process of gamete or embryo donation and/or the use of a surrogate mother, ART and IVF offers such couples the opportunity to have a family they would not otherwise have. Because of the overwhelming success of IVF over and above the conventional fertility treatment couples who need medical help to get pregnant should ideally be referred to as sub-fertile to indicate and emphasise the temporary nature the fertility problem. Most certainly the words barren or sterile are inappropriate in today’s world given the availability and access to IVF services.