Unexplained Infertility

Frequently, couples that have been unable to conceive will undergo all the recommended diagnostic tests and still find nothing wrong. This is called unexplained infertility. Having unexplained infertility does not mean that there is nothing wrong, but rather that we are not clever enough in 2007 to determine what the problem is. It is not surprising that we cannot uncover the cause of infertility in many couples given that there are probably hundreds of processes that must work right for pregnancy to occur, and we only have valid tests for a handful of them.

If you have been diagnosed as having unexplained infertility, do not despair; it is among the most successfully treated of all diagnoses. However, our approach to treatment is a bit different than for other diagnoses. If, in the course of a diagnostic evaluation, we find a problem, we then design our treatment to correct that problem. However, for unexplained infertility, this is not possible: we don’t know what the problem is, so we cannot attack it directly.

The treatment for unexplained infertility centers around the fact that women with this diagnosis do get pregnant, albeit at a much slower rate than the general population. Our treatment approach is to try and speed up this rate, and 2 approaches can be use: 1) creating more than 1 ovulation per month… this increases the number of targets and enhances the likelihood of a successful pregnancy occurring; and 2) placing more sperm in the vicinity of the eggs… this increases the chances that a sperm will fertilize an egg and produce an embryo.

Given these principles, there are 6 basic approaches used to treat unexplained infertility.  See Treatment for Unexplained Infertility.