Standard medical textbooks define infertility as the “failure to conceive following one year of unprotected sexual intercourse.” For young and healthy heterosexual couples having frequent intercourse, about 85% will be pregnant after one year of trying and about 93% will be pregnant after two years of trying to conceive.
Initial infertility evaluations should be individualized by an infertility specialist, taking into consideration the medical history of the couple and the age of the female partner.
The following are Pacific Fertility Center’s guidelines for when to begin medical evaluation for infertility.
It is important to understand that human reproduction appears to be relatively inefficient. In any one month, it is estimated that of 100 young and healthy heterosexual couples attempting to conceive, about 25 couples will successfully do so and about 75 will fail. True infertility only occurs in a few specific situations: