Have you ever noticed how often clinicians use descriptions as if they were a diagnosis? Some common examples are Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Idiopathic Hypertension. These say nothing about the cause of the condition and most are probably a mixture of conditions that share common symptoms. Unexplained Infertility has become another of these meaningless descriptions. It is the equivalent of a “medical out basket”; a way of clearing the desk without solving the problem.
I am alarmed by the number of couples who are given the description of Unexplained Infertility, who are nevertheless offered In Vitro Fertilization or some other invasive procedure. This is the equivalent of deciding to re-wire your whole house because you don’t know what is causing the refrigerator to short out. You just wouldn’t accept this for your house. You would consider the cost to be outlandish. You would consider that the electrician was incompetent because he was unable to identify a simple fault. You would also probably go through the house yourself, testing out various appliances and working out which combinations of power points or appliances caused problems. So why do so many couples give in to the ridiculous?
The reason couples give in is that they feel desperate. They have either not been given sufficient information to take charge themselves or they have already given over their bodies to medicine. They have been sold the idea of the quick fix and the easy way out. Yet IVF is not easy and it has a poor record at helping couples who are described as having unexplained infertility.
There are actually many different factors that can cause apparently unexplained infertility. They commonly include thyroid deficiency, stress, gluten intolerance or other food allergies, insulin resistance, nutritional deficiencies, too much exercise, unrecognised toxic exposures, shift work, poor sexual technique and/or poor sexual timing. Chromosome abnormalities and other rarer conditions may also be involved. Couples with the problem often have more than one of these factors.
Very thorough history taking and simple tests can usually identify the different factors with reasonable ease. There is often more than one factor. The solution usually involves changes in diet and lifestyle and may take six months or more for the changes to take effect. Sometimes the solution requires a change in job or even occasionally moving house. But there are answers. Unexplained infertility is not a diagnosis!
Dr Judy Ford is an internationally respected geneticist who has undertaken considerable research into the causes of infertility, including unexplained infertility, miscarriage and birth defects. She believes that most problems can be overcome by making the appropriate changes to diet, lifestyle and personal environment. More information can be found on her website http://www.itsnatural.com.au