Infertility factors. Their relative importance and share in an unselected material of infertility patients

Abstract

A 7-year material of 196 infertile couples is presented. 1.5-8.5 years after investigation and/or treatment for infertility rather more than 48 per cent of the women had conceived, and of these pregnancies 19 per cent ended in abortion. Various factors, such as duration of infertility, age, history of pelvic inflammatory disease, and previous use of oral contraceptives are analyzed for their relative share in the material and relative importance for the chances of pregnancy. --Unlike age, the duration of infertility was an important prognostic factor, also when it exceeded 2 years. Previous operations on the internal genitalia reduced the chances of conceiving essentially more than a history of one episode of pelvic inflammation, whereas several episodes of pelvic inflammation seemed to spell an equally unfavorable prognosis. As expected, infertility caused by oral contraceptive-conditioned oligo-amenorrhea was considerably easier to treat than other forms of infertility. Oligo-amenorrhea was significantly more common among patients who had used oral contraception for 1-6 years than among those who had used it for less than 1 year. --The incidence of abortion in patients with secondary infertility was about three times higher before than after the infertility investigations. Lastly, the individual infertility diagnoses were analyzed in the same way, as regards relative share and importance. About 42 per cent of the operated patients succeeded in conceiving. It is remarkable that 8 patients had a bicornuate uterus, and of them 7 had oligo- and/or hypomenorrhea.