Secondary infertility is when a couple is having trouble getting pregnant subsequently successfully having a child (or children) in the by. Many women who don't experience any issues getting pregnant with their get-go child may observe it more difficult to get pregnant the second 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 afterwards your first kid.

What is Secondary Infertility?

A woman's fertility declines with age, sometimes information technology can be harder to become significant with a second kid than it was with the first. When a adult female has trouble getting pregnant on her own subsequently a previously successful natural conception and birth, fertility doctors refer to this as secondary infertility. Secondary fertility tin often exist treated with fertility treatment.

What is the deviation between Master Infertility and Secondary Infertility?

Main infertility is more usually referred to as merely, infertility. Primary infertility is diagnosed when a couple fails to get meaning afterwards half dozen-12 months of trying. Secondary infertility is when a couple fails to become significant after successfully giving nascency in the past.

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

How mutual is secondary infertility?

Secondary infertility is as common every bit principal infertility. Infertility affects 1 in viii couples trying to conceive or about 12.5 pct.

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

Causes of Secondary Infertility

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

  • About 33% of all infertility cases stalk 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 e'er accept, and that supply slowly decreases every bit she releases eggs every month during her menstrual cycle. So every bit a woman ages, she has fewer eggs, and fewer good quality eggs – both factors that reduce her chances of getting pregnant naturally.Generally, a woman is most fertile in her mid-to-tardily-20s, afterwards which point her fertility begins to decline slowly until age 35 when the decline accelerates. That said, every woman is different, and that pass up can begin earlier or after. Because fertility declines with age, information technology's possible – and fifty-fifty mutual – for women who had no trouble getting meaning with their first kid 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 tin 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 crusade of infertility. Information technology is a status where tissue that typically grows inside the uterus grows in places similar the ovaries.
  • Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS): A hormonal disorder that causes women to accept exceptional or prolonged periods. PCOS patients may also accept backlog androgen levels (male person hormones). Patients with PCOS frequently develop modest collections of fluid effectually their ovaries which inhibit eggs from releasing.
  • Lifestyle: An increment in BMI and/or sure medications may as well lead to ovary dysfunction and bear on your fertility.

Causes of secondary infertility in men

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

  • Low sperm count: Low testosterone levels, a blocked duct, and even certain medications tin cause low sperm count.
  • Sperm abnormalities: Sperm may be abnormal 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 body produces abnormal sperm.
  • Varicocele: Think of a varicocele as a varicose vein in the scrotum. This may raise the temperature in the testes to higher-than-normal levels which can alter sperm production.
  • Anti-sperm antibodies: Some men and women have anti-sperm antibodies that make information technology difficult for them to achieve a pregnancy.

Can a C-Section cause secondary infertility?

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

A C-department causes scarring and sometimes this scarring can crusade inflammation or obstructions that can make becoming pregnant more than difficult.

Scar tissue can also grow and form big 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 see a fertility medico for secondary infertility are exactly the same equally for any woman trying to get pregnant.

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

Information technology is recommended that you seek assist after just six months of trying if you are 35 years old or older.

Can you get pregnant with secondary infertility?

The short answer is yes, yous can go pregnant with secondary infertility, but you may need to seek out the help of a fertility doctor, and here's why.

While women over the age of 35 all the same have eggs left, information technology becomes more than hard to get pregnant because the eggs are of lower quality.

Inquiry performed past 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 accept 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 20 percentage, rises to the mid-30s by age 35, is near l percent by historic period forty, and is nearly 90 percent past age 42 and 43.

This means that while near 20 percent of the embryos a adult female creates may be abnormal in her tardily 20s, almost 90 percent could be abnormal by her early 40s. That is a significant alter in a little over a decade.

What does aneuploidy accept to do with a successful pregnancy?

A lot. The contrary of aneuploid is euploid, which means an embryo is chromosomally normal, or that it has the normal amount of chromosomes and has a practiced chance of implanting inside the uterus and leading to a successful pregnancy.

Aneuploid embryos, on the other hand, take too few or too many chromosomes, and often fail to implant within the uterus.

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

And so the older the woman, the higher her chances of producing aneuploid embryos that neglect to implant, leading to infertility.

Aneuploidy embryo chart

How can I tell if I have secondary infertility?

If y'all were able to get pregnant naturally and gave nascence without issue in the past but are having trouble conceiving on your ain for the second or third fourth dimension, yous may have secondary infertility.

However, it is too possible that there is another cause for your infertility, and doing the necessary fertility testing will help yous decide the cause so you can move frontward with the appropriate handling.

All patients at RMA undergo diagnostic testing to become a complete picture of their fertility before moving onto handling; this includes fertility bloodwork to learn more about a patient's egg count, which tin assist 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 information technology go on to take successful subsequent pregnancies.

There are various treatment options based on the adult female's specific fertility profile, including Intrauterine Insemination (IUI), where sperm is inserted into a woman's uterus at the fourth dimension of ovulation.

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

IVF infographic

No thing which treatment path you lot pursue, you lot should have hope that we are hither for you lot and you can overcome secondary infertility with just a fiddling bit of help.

Is IVF more successful in secondary fertility?

IVF is non necessarily more successful for patients with secondary infertility, simply it is often the just or nearly successful fertility handling pick.

Secondary Infertility Back up Groups

Struggling with infertility can be very hard to deal with alone. It is important to know that there are support groups out there defended specifically to men and women dealing with infertility. Resolve: The National Infertility Clan offers support groups all across the US. Apply their helpful Infertility Back up Group Finder to find a meeting closest to you.