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How common are fertility problems?

About 1 in 6 couples will seek help for fertility problems (Hull 1985), however it is also known that 1 in 4 couples will experience problems getting pregnant making infertility the most common gynaecological symptom in women of child bearing age.

Fertility is a matter of chance and compared to most other mammals, the human is quite inefficient and not that fertile. Humans on average have a 1 in 5 (20%) chance of conceiving each “cycle” (Evers 2002) compared to rabbits that have >90% chance!

Most couples who seek help are not infertile but have a degree of reduced fertility i.e. “subfertility” rather than infertility. For this reason most couples presenting with fertility problems will conceive without help if they wait long enough.

The question is deciding when to seek specialist help.
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The term ovulation implies release of an egg from the egg sac (follicle) of the ovary. This usually occurs mid-cycle i.e. day 14 of a 28 day cycle, but the day of ovulation can vary from month to month. Generally, women who have regular periods are ovulating, however, this becomes more dysfunctional and irregular as a woman gets older.