4 causes of infertility in women

                                            

Infertility, the inability to bear children, is a huge problem in Nigeria, it is also often the cause of breakups and stigmatization.

This horrible condition can be caused be a number of things, and they include:

1. Endometriosis- This condition is characterized by a tissue implanting itself in other places rather than the uterus, this unnatural occurrence affects the lining of the uterus, disrupting implantation of the fertilized egg. This can also cause damage to the sperm or egg. When this is  scarred or inflamed within the uterus, it can disrupt implantation.
2. Uterine or cervical causes- These interfere with implantation of the fertilized egg thereby increasing the possibility of a miscarriage. They include cervical stenosis, a cervical narrowing caused by an inherited malformation or damage to the cervix, uterine abnormalities present from birth, such as an abnormally shaped uterus, fibroids or tumors blocking the fallopian tubes or by disrupting implantation. Another instance is when the cervix can’t produce the best type of mucus to allow the sperm to travel through the cervix into the uterus.
3. Tubal infertility-  This involves damage to the fallopian tubes caused by pelvic inflammatory disease, an infection of the uterus and fallopian tubes due to chlamydia, gonorrhea or other s*xually transmitted infections, previous surgery in the abdomen or pelvis, including surgery for ectopic pregnancy, in which a fertilized egg becomes implanted and starts to develop in a fallopian tube instead of the uterus and pelvic tuberculosis, a major cause of tubal infertility worldwide. This damage prevents sperm from getting to the egg or blocks the passage of the fertilized egg into the uterus.
4. Ovulation disorders- This means you ovulate infrequently or sometimes not at all. These can be caused by flaws in the regulation of reproductive hormones by the hypothalamus or the pituitary gland, or by problems in the ovary itself.

Apart from the above causes, there are other unexplainable instances that science is still trying to figure out.