Infertility - Facts and Figures

Childlessness is rarely planned. Only eight percent of people make a conscious choice to young, according to a survey by the Institutefor Allensbach. Despite fertility but there is every fifth pair not to apregnancy - and this is true even for parents who already have achild and want another. Overall, the institute expects 1.4 million Germans who are infertile.

In most cases, a physical cause behind the lack of pregnancy. It is slightly more common in men than in women, but it also concerns regularly both partners. The fertility is impaired even if only temporarily, for example because of illness, stress or diet. pushed to the back burner A natural limit to the fertility is age. With an average of 52 years, women are in the Western industrial nations in the Menopause - hormonal changes make pregnancy impossible thereafter. But a few years earlier decreases the chance to bring a healthy child into the world: At 35, she is only half as high as with 25 The biological clock is ticking not only for women: Beyond the 30th Year of life is also the fertility of men was gradually reduced. Experts resulted in the birth rate in recent years has often been attributed an increasingly later decision for a child. Adjusted figures from the Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden in 2006, however, showed that women at first childbirth today are no older than 50 years ago. Women who are now 72 to 77 years old, were on average 25 years with her first child, now in the 62 - to 66-year-olds, the age dropped to 23 years and then rose in the now 46 to 51 years old women again to 26 years on. Birth of IVF centers The slightly higher age of today's mothers will also be due to medical advances, which helps older women more often meet the desire for children. According to data from the Berlin Institute for Population and Development couples seek medical advice quickly today, if the pregnancy is not naturally succeed. After an average of 1.6 years of fruitless attempts reaches the majority of men and women relying on the help of reproductive medicine. And has greatly improved since 1982, the first German baby after artificial insemination has been born: Meanwhile, some 120 fertility centers and various offices and clinics take care of childless couples. More than four percent of current parents have made use of this support. Every year 12,000 children in this country to see an in-vitro fertilization (IVF) the light of day. This represents a ratio of 1.6 percent of all births. In 2003, that number surged to the highest level so far to 2.6 percent - over the health reform of 2004, many couples have quickly secured the then higher reimbursement by health insurance. No guarantee of "take home baby" The high rate of assisted births year does not necessarily reflect the chances of success for individuals. The so-called "baby-take-home" rate of the reproductive process, although situated in favorable cases (adequate ovarian function) at 27 percent. The success of treatment greatly depends on the individual circumstances of the cause of infertility and the age of the partners.A third of couples will see more than one reproductive measure until the pregnancy is successful. Most often women undergoing hormone treatment (71 percent), on the other courts follow IVF or ICSI (41 percent) and insemination (29 percent). Hormone therapy and insemination lead per start relatively rarely successful. The probability is in IVF and ICSI approximately twice as high - and with costs rising as well. Risks and side effects Women in particular need to bring a fertility treatment time. Daily visits to the doctor's office with very short lead times are not uncommon. Temporal flexibility in the profession is therefore of great advantage and helps to reduce some of the psychological stress. Many couples make during treatment cycles without time pressure an emotional roller coaster ride. Successful fertilization of the egg, there is set a high feeling which is reversed into its opposite, when the embryo is not implanted in the uterus. Almost every second woman has after an unsuccessful treatment signs of depression, according to a study by the Robert Koch Institute. Less frequently it comes to physical problems. When few women enter overstimulation of the ovaries by hormone administration.Gestational diabetes, hypertension and caesarean section are slightly more common. The biggest difference for natural childbirth is that it often is a multiple birth, which in turn brings more complications. Reproductive medicine are therefore working hard to reduce the number of twins, triplets and quadruplets - and thus to the model even closer to nature.