How to Deal with Unexplained Infertility
At Heartland Center for Reproductive Medicine, our fertility clinic offers hope to couples who have struggled with infertility.
Part of treating infertility is identifying the cause, but because infertility can be complex, sometimes a cause cannot be determined. In this blog post, we discuss how patients can deal with unexplained infertility. At our Omaha, NE, clinic, we offer the support and treatments patients need to help them become parents.
What Is Unexplained Infertility?
When fertility testing does not reveal a reason for a couple's difficulty in becoming pregnant, they are typically diagnosed with unexplained infertility.
Unexplained infertility does not mean that pregnancy is not possible, it just means that current testing cannot identify the issue that may be making it difficult to naturally become pregnant.
Dealing with Unexplained Fertility
Unexplained infertility often leaves couples sad and uncertain of their chances of having children. For many, dealing with unexplained infertility requires compassionate care and emotional support in addition to fertility treatments. Here are some tips to help our Omaha patients deal with unexplained infertility.
Get Support
An unexplained infertility diagnosis can leave some patients feeling a loss of hope, sadness, or despair. It's important to seek emotional support, whether through friends and family, a psychologist, or support group, when these feelings affect daily life or you simply feel you need help coping.
Make Dietary Changes
Making dietary changes to include foods rich in folic acid, folate, and other fertility boosting vitamins, is sometimes beneficial for couples with unexplained infertility.
Additionally, it's recommended that women trying to get pregnant limit caffeine and alcohol as excessive consumption of both can impact fertility.
Practice Mind-Body Exercises
Practicing mind-body exercises can help reduce stress when dealing with unexplained infertility. Sometimes, reducing stress hormones can also help couples with unexplained infertility conceive.
Mind-body exercises are exercises that combine mental focus and controlled breathing with body movements, such as yoga and tai chi.
Seek Fertility Treatment
There are many fertility treatment options at our Omaha clinic for couples with unexplained infertility. When treating unexplained infertility, it's often recommended that couples start with the least invasive treatment, like fertility medications, and work their way up to progressively more involved treatments if necessary.
Some fertility treatments that may help couples with unexplained infertility conceive include:
- Fertility medications: Fertility medications trigger ovulation, or the release of eggs from the ovaries. For some couples, this is enough to overcome infertility.
- Intrauterine insemination: Intrauterine insemination (IUI) is a form of artificial insemination in which concentrated sperm is placed directly into the uterus.
- In vitro fertilization: In vitro fertilization (IVF) combines fertility medications to stimulate the ovaries; the eggs are then retrieved, and are fertilized with sperm in a lab. A fertilized egg is then placed into the uterus.
Learn More about Treatments for Unexplained Infertility
If you and your partner have had difficult conceiving, or you've been diagnosed with unexplained infertility, fertility treatment from HCRM may be right for you. For more information, please call (402) 717-4200 to schedule a consultation with one of our doctors.