Causes of female infertility

There are two types of infertility:

Primary infertility: where someone who has never conceived a child in the past has difficulty conceiving.

Secondary infertility: where a person has had one or more pregnancies in the past, but is having difficulty conceiving again. It is estimated that 1/3 of the causes of infertility are associated with male factors such as poor sperm quality, 1/3 attributed to female factors. Three of the most common conditions that contribute to early female infertility are pelvic inflammatory disease, endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome.

Pelvic Inflammatory Disease

Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID) is an infection of the female reproductive organs, usually caused by a sexually transmitted infection (STI). Although PID can often be treated quickly and effectively, if left untreated, it can lead to infertility. As well as increasing your risk of having an ectopic pregnancy, scarring or abscesses in the fallopian tubes can make it difficult for you to get pregnant if eggs cannot pass easily into the womb. It's estimated that about 1 in every 10 women with PID

What you should do after embryo transfer

For any IVF patient, the embryo transfer procedure is an exciting and stressful milestone in

their fertility treatment. After the weeks of medications and monitoring, the egg retrieval procedure and the anxious wait to see how the embryos develop, this final step of the IVF process is full of potential. Once the embryos have been placed in the uterus, one last thing must happen before a patient is officially pregnant: implantation. Most couples have found that these few weeks after the IVF embryo transfer are the most difficult period.

Be joyful!

While there is no proof that bed rest is beneficial after transfer, finding ways to relax for the duration of two week wait between transfer and your official pregnancy test. Get good amount of sleep, if you feel nervous and want to move around, go for a quiet walk somewhere restful.