Secondary Infertility: Helping Yourself

Having one child is sometimes not enough for many couples. Most dream of a boy and a girl to complete a family, but after having one the other one doesn’t seem to come about. Getting worried, they visit doctor and would find out that they have secondary infertility. What is secondary infertility? What causes it and is it curable?

Secondary infertility is basically defined as having difficulty to conceive or unable to conceive after already having conceived and had a normal pregnancy at least once. It is sometimes shocking to many couples to discover this, due to the proper and smooth first delivery the wife had.

General Causes and Factors – External and Internal

There are many reasons to why secondary infertility happens. Many of the medical conditions namely internal disorders, such as hormonal, ovarian and ovulation problems, tube or peritoneal causes, hypothalamic-pituitary causes, cervical, vaginal and uterine problems, and genetic causes apply here as well. Again, the problem can lie with both the woman's reproductive system and the man's reproductive system, or with both partners.

However, most of the times, these are not the only causes. A secondary infertility is commonly caused by age, new partners, stress, taking up alcohol or certain drugs that causes infertility, food, coffee, and many more reasons beyond these. Infertility starts to kick in slowly from age 30 and more rapidly from age 35 onwards in women.

Some women develop hormonal problems which affect the ovulation process, or having not enough mucus to allow the sperm to move freely, or it is too thick and sticky, or the mucus is unreceptive to the partner's sperm. The mucus, which is supposed to help the sperm to swim up to uterus to meet the egg, fails.

Or it is also possible that a dormant health problem which may have existed when you conceived before but did not affect the pregnancy is active now and it interrupts the current conception. This may include damage to the uterus or fallopian tubes caused by endometriosis, sexually transmitted diseases (STD), fibroids, diseases such diabetes, or any other ovarian or ovulation problems.

Steps of Courage

If you happen to be confirmed of having secondary infertility, you need to brace yourself to do certain things. First, get a blood test done to check your levels of serum progesterone, serum gonadotrophins, and prolactin. Seek an infertility specialist and get a diagnosis. Get other medical tests such as pelvic ultrasound, a laparoscopy, or a hysterosalpingography and hysterosalping-contrast sonography.

Besides that, help yourself to get better naturally. From the diagnosis, find out the cause and act accordingly. Change your diet if necessary. Don’t take much of preservatives or alcohol. Stop taking any drugs or medicines which are suspected to be cause of your secondary infertility as well. Carry on making love regularly as usual. Do not stress yourself with problems and troubles. Take proper medications, and if necessary seek for alternative medicines such as herbs and roots, for example the herb agnus castus (chaste tree). All of these factors can unite in providing what you want out of life.

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