Infertility, Miscarriage and Endometriosis

• feeling exhausted, dizzy or faint
• enlarged tender breasts with more obvious blue vains
• ******* and oreola go dark pink or brown
• missed period
• constipation
• increased vaginal discharge
• odd metallic taste in mouth
• sudden dislike to previous liked food/drink- eg, coffee
• more frequent need to urinate
• sickness or nausea, usually in morning but can occur any time

most common way to establish if pregnantis to use home pregnancy kit. Can be bought in chemists or supermarkets.

Infertility is the inability to concieve children. Can affect both male and female.

Common Causes:

• Blocked Fallopian Tubes- prevents sperm reaching egg
• Low Sperm Count- can be at cause of male having mumps after 12. 20,000,000 sperm needed for and ova (only one fertilises)
• Thick Cervical Mucus- prevents sperm reaching fallopian tubes
• Cancer Treatment- kills cells and can leave men/women infertile
• Ovulation- means no eggs to be fertilised. can be short term or serious.

IVF (In Vitro Fertilisation):

• somtmes called 'test-tube baby'
• takes place in laboratory
• women given hormone treatment to stimulate egg production and the monitored closely so eggs can be removed by operation
• at 8-cell-division stage 3 are selected and placed back into uterus
• If replaced in fallopian tube it is called, GIFT (Gamete Intra-fallopian Transfer)

Donor Insemination:

• sperm from anonymous donor
• it is used for either IVF or GIFT

Artifical Insemination by husband:

• places sperm directly into uterus to avoid hostile cervical mucus

Surrogacy:

• another woman offers to incubate baby in her uterus and hand it over at birth
• husbands sperm can be used to fertilise surrogate's egg using artifical insemination

Egg Donation:

• egg is donated and used in IVF

baby is expelled from uterus before it is viable (classed viable at 24 weeks). Baby born dead after 24 weeks- stillbirth. most miscarriages occur around 12-14 weeks.

Possible Problems:

• Threatened abortion: bleeding from vagina but foetus is not expelled. may result in inevitable abortion or pregnancy may continue normally.
• Inevitable abortion: foetus is expelled naturally by body through vagina
• Missed abortion: foetus dies in utero but is not spontaneously expelled. must be removed with medical assistance.

Signs/ Symptons:

• vaginal bleeding- heavy continious bleeding or blood spots with severe abdominal pain.
• clear/pink fluid from vagina (likely to be amniotic fluid from ruptured amniotic sac)
• cramp like period pains

• insufficient hormone levels, especially progesterone
• Auto-immune disease in mother
• Cervical incompetence
• Fibroids (small growths in uterus)
• Foetal abnormalties
• exposure to toxins- eg, radiation
• Severe maternal infection
• a malformed uterus

• Fairly common condition
• cells that usually line uterus are found else where in body.
• usually in the fallopian tubes, ovaries, bladder, bowl, intestines, vagina and rectum
• cells behave the same way cells that line the uterus do.
• when pregnancy does not happen lining breaks down and bleeds (period)
• Endometrial tissue does not leave body but is trapped, leading to pain, swelling and bleeding where ever tissue is.