Secondary infertility is when a couple is having problem getting pregnant after successfully having a child (or children) in the past. Many women who don't experience any problems getting pregnant with their start child may notice it more hard to go significant the 2nd time around.

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

What is Secondary Infertility?

A woman'southward fertility declines with historic period, sometimes it tin exist harder to go pregnant with a second child than it was with the first. When a woman has trouble getting meaning 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 handling.

What is the difference betwixt Chief Infertility and Secondary Infertility?

Primary infertility is more commonly referred to as simply, infertility. Main infertility is diagnosed when a couple fails to become pregnant after half-dozen-12 months of trying. Secondary infertility is when a couple fails to become pregnant after successfully giving birth in the by.

The causes of primary and secondary infertility are nearly identical, but the emotional touch can be very different from each other. Fortunately, fertility treatments for primary and secondary infertility are the same and both take loftier success rates.

How common is secondary infertility?

Secondary infertility is as common as master infertility. Infertility affects one in 8 couples trying to excogitate or about 12.five percent.

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

Causes of Secondary Infertility

Secondary infertility can be caused by bug with the female or male partner.

  • Nearly 33% of all infertility cases stem from issues with the female partner.
  • Some other 33% of cases stem from the male 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 as she releases eggs every calendar month during her menstrual cycle. So as a woman ages, she has fewer eggs, and fewer skillful quality eggs – both factors that reduce her chances of getting meaning naturally.Generally, a adult female is most fertile in her mid-to-late-20s, after which point her fertility begins to decline slowly until age 35 when the turn down accelerates. That said, every woman is different, and that refuse can begin earlier or later. Because fertility declines with age, it'due south possible – and even common – for women who had no trouble getting pregnant with their first child to struggle to conceive the second time around, when they are older and less fertile.
  • Damaged or blocked fallopian tubes: Issues with the fallopian tubes can hinder the egg from traveling to the ovaries successfully.
  • Issues with the uterus: Scaring from a C-section or fibroids may also cause infertility.
  • Endometriosis: Endometriosis is a very common cause of infertility. Information technology is a condition 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 have infrequent or prolonged periods. PCOS patients may also have excess androgen levels (male hormones). Patients with PCOS often develop pocket-sized collections of fluid around their ovaries which inhibit eggs from releasing.
  • Lifestyle: An increase in BMI and/or certain medications may also lead to ovary dysfunction and touch your fertility.

Causes of secondary infertility in men

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

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

Tin can a C-Section cause secondary infertility?

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

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

Scar tissue can also grow and form large masses and cause endometriosis.

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

When should I see a doctor for secondary fertility?

The guidelines on when you should run across a fertility doctor for secondary infertility are exactly the same as for whatsoever adult female trying to become pregnant.

You should seek the assistance of a reproductive endocrinologist if y'all are under 35 years old and trying to conceive for 12 months.

It is recommended that you seek aid after just 6 months of trying if you are 35 years old or older.

Can you get pregnant with secondary infertility?

The short answer is yep, you tin go significant with secondary infertility, but yous may demand to seek out the aid of a fertility physician, and here'southward why.

While women over the age of 35 all the same accept eggs left, it becomes more hard to get pregnant because the eggs are of lower quality.

Inquiry 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 woman, the more likely it is that her eggs have a chromosomal error which will, in turn, result in embryos being aneuploid, or chromosomally abnormal.

For example, in her mid-to-late 20s, the rate of aneuploidy in a woman's eggs is a lilliputian more than than 20 per centum, rises to the mid-30s by age 35, is nigh l percent by age twoscore, and is nearly 90 percent by age 42 and 43.

This means that while about 20 per centum of the embryos a woman creates may be abnormal in her tardily 20s, almost 90 percentage could be aberrant past her early 40s. That is a significant change in a trivial over a decade.

What does aneuploidy have to do with a successful pregnancy?

A lot. The opposite of aneuploid is euploid, which means an embryo is chromosomally normal, or that information technology has the normal amount of chromosomes and has a good take chances of implanting inside the uterus and leading to a successful pregnancy.

Aneuploid embryos, on the other hand, have too few or too many chromosomes, and ofttimes neglect to implant within the uterus.

In the chance they do implant, they often lead to miscarriage or an afflicted kid.

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 accept secondary infertility?

If you were able to get significant naturally and gave nativity without outcome in the past simply are having problem conceiving on your ain for the second or tertiary time, y'all may have secondary infertility.

Withal, it is also possible that in that location is another crusade for your infertility, and doing the necessary fertility testing will help you decide the cause so you can move forward with the appropriate treatment.

All patients at RMA undergo diagnostic testing to get a complete picture of their fertility before moving onto treatment; this includes fertility bloodwork to learn more than about a patient'south egg count, which tin can aid determine 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 go on to have successful subsequent pregnancies.

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

In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) is another selection, where sperm and egg are fertilized outside the adult female's body and a resulting embryo is transferred back into the woman's uterus in hopes of implantation.

IVF infographic

No thing which treatment path you pursue, you should have promise that we are hither for yous and you can overcome secondary infertility with merely a picayune bit of assist.

Is IVF more successful in secondary fertility?

IVF is non necessarily more successful for patients with secondary infertility, merely it is ofttimes the merely or nigh successful fertility treatment option.

Secondary Infertility Back up Groups

Struggling with infertility tin be very difficult to deal with lonely. Information technology is of import to know that there are support groups out there defended specifically to men and women dealing with infertility. Resolve: The National Infertility Association offers back up groups all across the Usa. Utilize their helpful Infertility Back up Group Finder to find a meeting closest to yous.