With today’s busy lifestyles, many couples plan carefully to ensure the time is just right to achieve pregnancy and start a family.

For the majority of couples pregnancy occurs naturally within 12 months of trying to conceive. However, for up to 20 per cent of couples it is a different story, they keep trying and nothing happens or they achieve pregnancy only to miscarry.

Infertility is defined as the inability to conceive after a year of unprotected intercourse, or the inability to carry pregnancies to a live birth.

There are many possible causes of infertility among males and females:

• 30% of infertility it due to females factors alone
• 30% of infertility is due to males factors alone
• 30% of infertility is due to both females and males factors
• Up to 10% of infertility remains unexplained

There may also be male or female genetic factors that affect an embryo’s ability to develop causing infertility or repeated miscarriage. In some cases, genetic factors may not prevent pregnancy and birth, but the child may have disabilities such as Down syndrome.