To be infertile means to be unable to beget children. From the medical standpoint, a couple is considered to be infertile if there has been no pregnancy after one to one-and-half years of unprotected sexual intercourse.
For the fertility process to proceed smoothly, both the man and the woman should be healthy and normal. Unfortunately, this aspect of conception is not known to most people. Traditionally (and very wrongly), it is the woman who is always blamed when a couple can't have a child. The investigation for infertility begins and ends with evaluation of the wife alone. Thus, a woman is often subjected to a D & C, laparoscopy etc. only to be told at the end of it all that everything is normal. It is not uncommon, in fact, for a man to divorce, not one but several wives under the mistaken (and chauvinistic) belief that she alone is responsible for the `barrenness'. Needless to say such men do not beget children even after several marriages !!
Approximately 15-20 percent of all cohabiting couples are infertile. Of these, in up to 50 percent of cases it is the male factor or the husband who is responsible for the infertility.
This means that nearly 7.5 to 10 percent of all men in the reproductive age group are infertile i.e. incapable of fathering children. This, by any yardstick, is a stupendous figure but one that very few know about.
For the fertility process to proceed smoothly, both the man and the woman should be healthy and normal. Unfortunately, this aspect of conception is not known to most people. Traditionally (and very wrongly), it is the woman who is always blamed when a couple can't have a child. The investigation for infertility begins and ends with evaluation of the wife alone. Thus, a woman is often subjected to a D & C, laparoscopy etc. only to be told at the end of it all that everything is normal. It is not uncommon, in fact, for a man to divorce, not one but several wives under the mistaken (and chauvinistic) belief that she alone is responsible for the `barrenness'. Needless to say such men do not beget children even after several marriages !!
Approximately 15-20 percent of all cohabiting couples are infertile. Of these, in up to 50 percent of cases it is the male factor or the husband who is responsible for the infertility.
This means that nearly 7.5 to 10 percent of all men in the reproductive age group are infertile i.e. incapable of fathering children. This, by any yardstick, is a stupendous figure but one that very few know about.
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