Infertility 08

--PaulineL 13 janvier 2009 à 15:42 (MET) and Debora; Marjorie & Nour --DeboraA 20 janvier 2009 à 16:11 (MET) and Pauline

What is infertility ?

Infertility is the unability for a couple to have a child after one year of unprotected sexual rapport.
For women, this means that they cannot conceive, while for men this consists in an unability to impregnate.

What is the difference between infertility and sterility?

Infertility is biologically the inability for a man or a female to produce gametes while sterility is the total incapacity to produce naturally. In medical usage, sterility usually refers to inability to produce a live child, while infertility is measured by failure to conceive after 1 year without contraception.

What are the causes of infertility ?

http://www.chu-toulouse.fr/-l-infertilite-

The older the woman or the man is, the bigger the chances of infertility are. Besides, the probability of a miscarriage is greater too. Then, obesity and underweight are important factors of an infertility, acting on the quality of the ovulation. Smoking and alcohol act as well on the processus of ovulation. Anovulation is one of the different causes of infertility. Anovulation is the fact that a female does not ovulate during cycles.In other words the ovaries fail to produce oocytes.

• Women

• age
• sexually transmitted diseases
• genital damages/abnormalities
• excessive exercise (leading to missed menstrual periods)
• anorexia or bulimia
• smoking, drugs, alcohol

• Men

• smoking, drugs, alcohol
• overheating of the testicles caused by exercise, hot water, tight clothing, excessive sitting (truck drivers) and other conditions and situations
• sexually transmitted diseases
• use of some medications (antihypertensives, antidepressants, male hormones, cancer treatment)
• genital damages/abnormalities

References

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12268268
http://www.emedicinehealth.com/infertility/article_em.htm
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
http://www.andrologia.org/eng/maschile_engl.htm

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