Infertility (human)

Human infertility is the apparent inability to conceive and produce children during the normal childbearing years. In the health sciences, the term is defined on a limited and practical basis:"Infertility is defined as the inability of a couple to conceive within 1 year." ( Ashim Kumar, MD, Shahin Ghadir, MD, Niloofar Eskandari, MD, & Alan H. DeCherney, MD:Chapter 55 Infertility in Alan H. DeCherney and Lauren Nathan:Current Diagnosis & Treatment Obstetrics & Gynecology, 10th edition, Copyright © 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc). This definition means that couples who have tried to have a child for a year but have been unable to establish a pregnancy are eligible to be evaluated for infertility. When couples have had children in the past, but have not now been able to establish a pregnancy, medically they are said to have "secondary infertility". When the couple has never had a pregnancy, then the condition is called "primary infertility".

Some men and women are sterile, because of an instrinsic condition, these people cannot conceive. Sometimes that is a purposeful decision on their part, elective sterilization procedures are available to end fertility. Sometimes this is a congenital or acquired condition, that is not suspected or wanted.