ABSTRACT
Infertility is characterized by the failure to establish a clinical pregnancy after 12 months of regular, unprotected sexual intercourse, or is due to impairment of a person’s capacity to reproduce either as an individual or with their partner. Infertility affects approximately 45 million couples worldwide, with one in six couples experiencing some form of infertility problem at least once during their reproductive lifetime. Couples are increasingly seeking assisted reproductive technology can treat a range of causes of infertility, and a variety of techniques are available, including in vitro fertilization, intracytoplasmic sperm injection, egg or sperm donation, gamete intrafallopian transfer, artificial insemination, surrogacy and cryopreservation. Infertility is relatively common, affecting one in six couples worldwide during their reproductive lifetimes, and is caused by a range of sex- and non–sex-specific factors. A number of tests are used to diagnose the cause of infertility and determine an optimal treatment strategy.
