Secondary infertility is when a couple is having trouble getting pregnant afterwards successfully having a child (or children) in the past. Many women who don't experience any issues getting pregnant with their commencement child may find it more difficult to become pregnant the second fourth dimension around.

Reproductive Endocrinologists, Dr. Scott Morin and Dr. Jonathan Kort explain exactly why this happens and how to have a successful pregnancy if you are experiencing difficulties achieving pregnancy after your first child.

What is Secondary Infertility?

A woman's fertility declines with age, sometimes it tin can be harder to get pregnant with a second child than it was with the first. When a woman has trouble getting pregnant on her own after a previously successful natural conception and birth, fertility doctors refer to this as secondary infertility. Secondary fertility can often be treated with fertility treatment.

What is the difference betwixt Primary Infertility and Secondary Infertility?

Master infertility is more ordinarily referred to as simply, infertility. Primary infertility is diagnosed when a couple fails to become pregnant subsequently 6-12 months of trying. Secondary infertility is when a couple fails to get pregnant after successfully giving birth in the past.

The causes of principal and secondary infertility are nearly identical, but the emotional impact tin be very unlike from each other. Fortunately, fertility treatments for primary and secondary infertility are the aforementioned and both have high success rates.

How mutual is secondary infertility?

Secondary infertility is every bit common as primary infertility. Infertility affects one in 8 couples trying to excogitate or about 12.five percentage.

Out of all infertility causes, secondary infertility makes up about 50 percent of all cases.

Causes of Secondary Infertility

Secondary infertility tin can be caused past issues with the female or male partner.

  • Virtually 33% of all infertility cases stem from issues with the female partner.
  • Another 33% of cases stem from the male person partner.
  • The remaining 33% are a combination of issues from both the male and female person partner

Causes of secondary infertility in women

  • Egg quality or quantity: A woman is born with all the eggs she'll ever have, and that supply slowly decreases equally she releases eggs every month during her menstrual cycle. And so as a adult female ages, she has fewer eggs, and fewer expert quality eggs – both factors that reduce her chances of getting significant naturally.Generally, a woman is most fertile in her mid-to-late-20s, subsequently which indicate her fertility begins to decline slowly until age 35 when the pass up accelerates. That said, every woman is different, and that decline tin brainstorm earlier or later on. Because fertility declines with age, it's possible – and even common – for women who had no problem getting pregnant with their start kid to struggle to conceive the 2d fourth dimension around, when they are older and less fertile.
  • Damaged or blocked fallopian tubes: Problems with the fallopian tubes tin can hinder the egg from traveling to the ovaries successfully.
  • Issues with the uterus: Scaring from a C-section or fibroids may too cause infertility.
  • Endometriosis: Endometriosis is a very mutual cause of infertility. It is a status where tissue that typically grows inside the uterus grows in places like the ovaries.
  • Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS): A hormonal disorder that causes women to accept exceptional or prolonged periods. PCOS patients may besides accept excess androgen levels (male hormones). Patients with PCOS ofttimes develop minor collections of fluid around their ovaries which inhibit eggs from releasing.
  • Lifestyle: An increase in BMI and/or certain medications may likewise atomic number 82 to ovary dysfunction and affect your fertility.

Causes of secondary infertility in men

Male infertility is mainly caused past problems with their sperm, hormonal imbalances, or issues related to their reproductive beefcake.

  • Low sperm count: Depression testosterone levels, a blocked duct, and even certain medications can cause low sperm count.
  • Sperm abnormalities: Sperm may exist aberrant in shape or may not be able to swim to the egg well enough for fertilization to occur.
  • Azoospermia: Azoospermia is when a man has no viable sperm. This means that his trunk produces abnormal sperm.
  • Varicocele: Recollect of a varicocele as a varicose vein in the scrotum. This may raise the temperature in the testes to college-than-normal levels which tin alter sperm production.
  • Anti-sperm antibodies: Some men and women take anti-sperm antibodies that make it difficult for them to reach a pregnancy.

Can a C-Section crusade secondary infertility?

Roughly 20% of women who gave birth via cesarean section reported difficulties getting pregnant with a 2nd child.

A C-section causes scarring and sometimes this scarring can cause inflammation or obstructions that can brand becoming meaning more than difficult.

Scar tissue tin can also abound and course big masses and cause endometriosis.

Secondary Infertility, Dr. Lange | RMA of Philadelphia, Fertility Clinic

When should I come across a doctor for secondary fertility?

The guidelines on when you should see a fertility dr. for secondary infertility are exactly the aforementioned as for any adult female trying to get pregnant.

You should seek the assistance of a reproductive endocrinologist if you are nether 35 years old and trying to conceive for 12 months.

It is recommended that you lot seek assistance after just six months of trying if you lot are 35 years one-time or older.

Can you get meaning with secondary infertility?

The short respond is aye, you can get pregnant with secondary infertility, but you may need to seek out the assistance of a fertility dr., and here's why.

While women over the age of 35 still have eggs left, it becomes more than difficult to get significant because the eggs are of lower quality.

Research performed by doctors at RMA showed that a woman's age impacts the viability of the embryos created from her eggs.

Namely, the older a adult female, the more probable it is that her eggs take a chromosomal error which volition, in plow, event in embryos existence aneuploid, or chromosomally aberrant.

For example, in her mid-to-belatedly 20s, the rate of aneuploidy in a woman'due south eggs is a little more than than 20 percentage, rises to the mid-30s past age 35, is about l pct by historic period xl, and is nigh 90 percent by age 42 and 43.

This means that while nigh 20 percent of the embryos a woman creates may be aberrant in her late 20s, almost 90 percent could exist abnormal past her early 40s. That is a significant modify in a lilliputian over a decade.

What does aneuploidy have to practise with a successful pregnancy?

A lot. The opposite of aneuploid is euploid, which means an embryo is chromosomally normal, or that it has the normal amount of chromosomes and has a good adventure of implanting within the uterus and leading to a successful pregnancy.

Aneuploid embryos, on the other paw, have as well few or too many chromosomes, and often fail to implant within the uterus.

In the chance they exercise implant, they oft lead to miscarriage or an affected child.

So the older the woman, the higher her chances of producing aneuploid embryos that fail to implant, leading to infertility.

Aneuploidy embryo chart

How tin can I tell if I have secondary infertility?

If you were able to get meaning naturally and gave birth without effect in the past but are having problem conceiving on your own for the second or third time, y'all may have secondary infertility.

Even so, it is too possible that there is another cause for your infertility, and doing the necessary fertility testing will help you decide the crusade so you tin can motility frontwards with the appropriate handling.

All patients at RMA undergo diagnostic testing to get a complete picture of their fertility earlier moving onto treatment; this includes fertility bloodwork to acquire more about a patient's egg count, which tin aid decide whether or not she is experiencing secondary infertility.

What type of treatment is available for women with secondary infertility?

Secondary infertility is treatable, and many women diagnosed with it become on to have successful subsequent pregnancies.

In that location are various treatment options based on the woman's specific fertility profile, including Intrauterine Insemination (IUI), where sperm is inserted into a woman'southward uterus at the time of ovulation.

In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) is another option, where sperm and egg are fertilized exterior the woman'due south torso and a resulting embryo is transferred back into the woman's uterus in hopes of implantation.

IVF infographic

No matter which treatment path you pursue, y'all should have hope that we are here for you and you can overcome secondary infertility with simply a little bit of help.

Is IVF more successful in secondary fertility?

IVF is not necessarily more successful for patients with secondary infertility, simply it is often the but or almost successful fertility treatment option.

Secondary Infertility Support Groups

Struggling with infertility can be very hard to bargain with solitary. It is important to know that there are back up groups out in that location dedicated specifically to men and women dealing with infertility. Resolve: The National Infertility Association offers back up groups all beyond the Usa. Utilize their helpful Infertility Support Grouping Finder to find a meeting closest to you.