There are times when all of the fertility tests have been done and the doctors have no answers.  You are diagnosed with the dreaded “unexplained infertility” or fertility of unknown origin.

This can hamper the conception process because the doctors do not know what to fix.  Unexplained fertility is, unfortunately, the cause of ten percent of couples who are infertile.

Doctors check for various causes of infertility and determine the cause of the infertility.  If the following are found, then the diagnosis of unexplained fertility is determined.

•    The Fallopian tubes are not closed and appear healthy
•    You are having normal ovulations
•    You have no adhesions in your pelvis
•    Your postcoital test is negative
•    You have no endometriosis
•    Your sexual partner has a normal sperm motility test

There are several causes of unexplained fertility.  One of them is that you have abnormal fallopian tubes which do not properly sweep the egg and sperm together for fertilization.  This does not often show up on hysterosalpingogram. An abnormality of one’s eggs can cause poor fertility.  If the eggs are of poor quality, they won’t be fertilized well.

There is a syndrome called Luteinizing Unruptured Follicle Syndrome or LUF in which the egg is trapped inside the sac it has matured in due to a decrease in the Luteinizing Hormone level which contributes to the release of the egg from the sac so that ovulation technically does not occur.   You can have an abnormal luteal phase, which is the period of time after ovulation but before you get your period.  Your hormone levels can fall before the egg is properly implanted, leading to an aborted pregnancy.

Another cause of unexplained fertility is your immune system.  Women can be “allergic” to sperm or treat sperm as a foreign invader or can see their own eggs as being foreign, killing them off before they can be fertilized.  All of this can have a serious effect on fertility. 

Infection in the body can affect fertility as well.  One such infection is called T-strain Mycoplasma and may not show up on routine tests for pelvic infections.   Poor sperm can result in unexplained fertility issues.  The sperm can appear normal but cannot break through to the outer shell of the egg.

One cannot discount the issues of stress and psychological distress on both male and female fertility.  The stress of not getting pregnant or the stress of a job can cause problems with fertility that are not identifiable on testing.

The treatment of unexplained infertility can be tricky.  The chances of becoming pregnant with treatment of unexplained fertility issues are about thirty percent.  Choices of fertility treatments include using fertility drugs to enhance ovulation and allow the development of more eggs.  If this treatment doesn’t work,  you can try intrauterine insemination which releases sperm into the uterine environment, increasing the chances of a pregnancy. 

Finally, IVF or in vitro fertilization can be used, which brings sperm and egg together in a Petri dish and implants the resultant embryo or embryos into the uterus.

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