diagnosis guide
If you’ve just received a medical diagnosis, or you’re concerned that something in your present or past health history might be jeopardizing your fertility, check here for quick info on common medical conditions and how they can affect conception and pregnancy.
Directory Content
Ovulatory Disorders
What It Is
A condition in which a woman ovulates irregularly, or stops ovulating completely.
Who Gets It
Between 20 and 40 percent of woman with fertility problems have an ovulatory disorder. Conditions such as ovarian cysts, hormone imbalances, thyroid and insulin problems, eating disorders, and pituitary gland or other endocrine disorders can cause a woman to stop ovulating. So can lifestyle factors, such as severe stress, excessive exercise, fad diets, or extreme weight loss. In some cases, the cause remains a mystery.
Symptoms
Usually, women who are not ovulating normally stop having periods or their periods are irregular and infrequent. In women who continue to have regular periods, difficulty conceiving is the only sign there is a problem.
How It's Diagnosed/Detected
Because so many different things can affect ovulation, your doctor will likely perform a full medical workup, including a discussion of your complete medical and menstrual history, a physical examination, and blood tests to measure hormone, thyroid, and insulin levels.
How It Affects Fertility (And Pregnancy)
When ovulation stops, no egg is released to be potentially fertilized, so pregnancy cannot occur. Infrequent ovulation also makes achieving pregnancy more difficult.
Treatment
If the cause of an ovulation disorder is eating, stress, or exercise related, the doctor may recommend psychological or nutritional counseling. If hormone, thyroid, insulin, or other endocrine imbalances are to blame, medications usually can correct the problem. Women with an unexplained disorder are usually prescribed fertility drugs to promote ovulation.
Pregnancy Prognosis
At least 75 percent of women who receive proper treatment for an ovulation disorder will be able to get pregnant.
Reader Faves
A few months after my first child was born, I wanted to be pregnant again—as soon as possible. I wanted my children to be close in age, the closer...
You might have spent most of your life (and an excruciatingly embarrassing high school health class) learning how to avoid getting pregnant, but...
There’s no need to feel deprived when you’re trying to get pregnant. Quite the opposite. Check out these foods that taste great and can help keep...
By now you’ve probably heard of Clomid, the most commonly-used fertility drug in the United States. But do you really know how it works and what the possible side effects can be? If fertility drugs are your next step in the attempt to get pregnant, then here is a quick rundown of the seven medications your doctor is most likely to prescribe.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 15 stories
You’ve only been trying for a few months, but you’re already starting to get annoyed rather than excited when you see a pregnant woman. Or you’ve been trying a lot longer. . . and you can’t even bear to look. Here’s how to get over it until it’s your turn.
Eileen Garvin of Susanville, California, became a client of a fertility clinic the way most women do—she was referred there by her ob/gyn.
Everyone knows about maternity leave, but sometimes women need to take time off before a baby arrives. If you’re having fertility treatments or trying to adopt, here’s what you should know to get the time off you need. Whether—and when—to tell your boss that you’re undergoing fertility treatments or arranging an adoption depends a lot on your relationship with your supervisor. While most workplace experts caution against revealing too much personal information, how do you explain being late for work because of blood tests and ultrasounds, and then needing to get home for hormone injections? Or what if you must travel abroad to bring home a baby, and then want three months to bond with your adopted child?
In an effort to attract patients and compete against the more-than 400 fertility centers providing IVF nationwide, fertility clinics today routinely...
As kids, we all learned about the birds and the bees. But we probably didn’t learn enough about fertility to know how babies can be conceived when nature doesn’t work perfectly.
When a couple is having trouble conceiving or carrying a pregnancy, sometimes a “third party” is enlisted to help. These women—egg donors and surrogates—are giving one of the greatest gifts of all. Find out why they do it.-
By now you’ve probably heard of Clomid, the most commonly-used fertility drug in the United States. But do you really know how it works and what the possible side effects can be? If fertility drugs are your next step in the attempt to get pregnant, then here is a quick rundown of the seven medications your doctor is most likely to prescribe.
No one wants to hear a doctor utter the dreaded word “infertility.” But couples can use the diagnosis as an opportunity to learn the skills they...
