About 80 to 90 women who have sex regularly without any contraception will get pregnant within a year. This is true for women under the 30 to 35 year group. After age 35, fertility starts declining and the ratio becomes lower. The question then is why some women below the age of 35 don’t get pregnant after a year of trying for a baby. There are certain factors that could be responsible for this situation.
Stress
Most women who don’t get pregnant as early as they want become anxious and emotional. This situation becomes a vicious cycle. The more you worry the more you compound the problem. When you are stressed you reduce your chances of getting pregnant. So the best thing to do is to relax and your chances will increase.
Sperm Count Problems
These constitute the largest single cause of infertility. It accounts for about 24% of cases. There are certain factors responsible for sperm problems, some of which are certain drugs known as beta-blockers, alcohol, cannabis and tobacco; infections such as mumps which can lead to permanent low sperm counts; as well as a natural inability of the body to produce enough sperms.
Ovulation Failure
This accounts for around 21% of cases of infertility. One thing that indicates this is irregular periods which may be light. There are certain causes underlying ovulation failure such as eating disorders like anorexia nervosa, premature menopause and low body fat and weight in athletes. There could also be what is called polycystic ovary syndrome. This is a condition associated with obesity, acne and excess facial or body hair (hirsutism).
Blockage of Fallopian tubes
About 14% of cases of infertility are due to this. This problem is mostly caused by pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). PID is mostly caused by sexually transmitted infections like Chlamydia and gonorrhoea. Chlamydia is the most common cause of blocked fallopian tubes. About 10% of all sexually active women are currently infected with Chlamydia. 10% of the infected have the risk of becoming infertile.
Problems with cervical mucus
There could be a mismatch between the man’s sperms and the woman’s cervical mucus. This will make it impossible for the sperm to swim through the cervix; they get killed in the mucus. This is just bad luck for the couple as the mucus may not be hostile to another man’s sperm.