Have you been trying to get pregnant for over a year with no success?

Do you find it hard to stop looking at baby stuff each time you shop – online or at a store?

Are you suddenly hearing of more family members, friends, neighbors, and colleagues getting pregnant? It seems like the whole world is having babies except you.

Have you been wondering if it’s time to seek professional help and infertility treatments?

If you’ve been dying to see the stick change color, you wouldn’t be alone. As the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control report, close to 12% of women in the USA between the ages of 15 and 44 years find it hard to conceive or carry a baby to term. In addition, there is no assurance that having had one or two healthy older children means that you can conceive and have more kids. Many women have to deal with a condition called secondary infertility.

Understanding the Main Causes of Infertility in Women

The American Pregnancy Association identifies the various conditions for which you may want to get infertility treatments. Take a look at some of the main ones:

• Hormone imbalances that can affect your menstrual cycle and the functioning of the reproductive organs
• Anxiety and stress
• Excessive working out that lowers the percentage of fat in the body
• Eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia that weaken the reproductive system
• Smoking and drug and alcohol abuse
• A tumor or cyst
• Abnormal thyroid levels that impact fertility
• Obesity
• Diseases and other causes of damage to the reproductive system including defects present from birth

Diagnosing the Causes of Infertility

Before deciding on a course of infertility treatment, your gynecologist may want to run a series of tests on you to understand why you’re having trouble conceiving. Accordingly, she may run diagnostic tests like:

• Ultrasound tests transvaginally or abdominally to check the uterus and ovaries
• Urine and blood tests to rule out infections
• Laparoscopic tests in the abdomen to check for adhesions or scar tissues in the reproductive tract
• Testing the cervical mucus and tissue to check if ovulation is occurring normally
• Breast and pelvic physical exams
• Testing the fallopian tubes for blockages with saline or a colored fluid

Conventional Infertility Treatments

As WebMD explains, depending on the results of the tests, your gynecologist may recommend the appropriate infertility treatments to help correct the issues that are preventing you from conceiving and delivering normally.

1. Healthy Lifestyle

To begin, you will be asked to make lifestyle changes such as quitting smoking, drinking, and drug abuse. You may also be asked to follow a healthy diet and exercise plan that helps you achieve an ideal body weight with optimum levels of fat.

2. Correcting Hormone Imbalances

Not only imbalanced thyroid hormones interfere with conception, but other hormones like estrogen and  progesterone in women and testosterone in men can affect fertility. To help you, the gynecologist might ask you to take supplements by way of infertility treatments to correct the problem. If you’re concerned about chemical supplements that can potentially have adverse effects, talk to your doctor about bioidentical hormone therapy that is sourced from plants.

3. Curing Infections

In case you have infections that are interfering with the normal ovulation and menstrual cycles, courses of antibiotics can help remove them. Bacterial infections cause damage to the reproductive system starting at the vagina and spreading up to the uterus and fallopian tubes. While medications can cure the infection, your gynecologist may need to help in the recovery from damage.

4. Minor Surgery

If needed, your doctor might perform minor surgery to remove the blockage in the fallopian tubes or any other scar tissues that interferes with the movement of the ovum into the uterus. Typically, doctors prefer to perform the necessary procedures laparoscopically so that the treatment is minimally invasive. If needed, they may remove the damaged sections of the tubes.

Unconventional Natural Treatments for Infertility

5. Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) Therapy

A new and upcoming treatment for helping you with some of the issues that cause infertility is PRP therapy. The serum used in the treatment is extracted from your blood so you need not worry about harmful chemicals hurting the baby should you conceive. After creating the serum in a 60-minute process, gynecologists inject it into the ovaries. The growth factors of the serum work to repair the damage in the ovaries and stimulate the development of healthy ova. PRP can also create new blood vessels in scar tissue of the ovaries so that healing is promoted.

In case your doctor detects that the lining of your uterus is not thick enough to support the implantation of the embryo, she might choose to inject the PRP serum in the endometrium lining. PRP fertility treatments can promote the growth of this lining so that it is healthy enough to support the implant and help it take root better.

In case you’ve opted for IVF procedures, talk to your gynecologist about adding PRP therapy to the infertility treatment and raise the chances of the procedure being successful.

Trying to conceive and have a baby can be a stressful time. However, doctors recommend that in addition to tests and treatments, you also adopt meditation and relaxation techniques that can help ease the process. Modern science has many options and with the right infertility treatments to help, you can become proud parents of a healthy baby soon.