Sharon Perkins - Getting Pregnant For Dummies

New terms appear in italics and are closely preceded or followed by an easy-to-understand definition. Italics are also used for emphasis.

Bold highlights the keywords in bulleted lists.

We think every word in this book is interesting and educational, but we understand that sometimes you just need a quick answer to a burning question. Other times you want to discover everything possible about infertility, even the technical stuff. We’ve designated some information as interesting-but-not-essential-to-read. Feel free to read it, but if you skip it, you’re not missing anything vital. Optional sections are

Text in sidebars: Shaded boxes that appear throughout the book. The information they contain may be anything from personal stories to technical information.

Anything with a Technical Stuff icon attached: This information is interesting but not essential. It simply enhances your understanding of a particular topic.

Note: The information provided in this book is based upon the best evidence available today. The authors used practice guidelines from both The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and The American Society for Reproductive Medicine, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses when they were available. Science is always discovering new things, so by the time you read this, some of these sources may have been revised.

We assume that you’re reading this book because you want to know more about infertility and because, despite your hopes to the contrary, you and/or a loved one, are dealing with infertility on one level or another, be it your first child or your fifth. We also assume that you want to

Understand the biologic causes of infertility

Discover what you can do to overcome infertility, from proper timing to changing your diet

Be up to date on the latest medical and surgical treatments for infertility

Find out about the newest genetic testing for you and your embryos

Pursue options for parenthood if the traditional roads fail you, from donor egg to use of a surrogate

Infertility is not the end of the road or the end of your dream of parenthood. There is help available, and we’re here to help you find the resources you need, whether your fertility issues are simple to solve or complex.

Icons are the little images that appear occasionally in the margins next to the text. We use them to let you know that a topic or piece of information is special in some way. Getting Pregnant For Dummies includes the following icons:

This icon identifies information that’s helpful and can save you time or trouble.

This icon highlights key points in the section you’re reading.

This icon stresses information that describes potentially serious issues, such as side effects to medication or other dangerous problems. Pay attention to warnings — they can keep you out of trouble!

This icon signals information that’s interesting but not essential.

If any of us has a personal story that is funny, informative, inspirational, or otherwise interesting, we identify it with the Personal Story icon. These anecdotes are never essential reading, but they’re usually entertaining!

This book is already full of information, but we’ve also provided a handy online Cheat Sheet of some of the most important or most helpful tidbits on the topic of fertility and getting pregnant such as the most important fertility tests, notes about medications and what questions our fertility doctor will ask you. Simply go to www.dummies.com and type “Getting Pregnant For Dummies Cheat Sheet” in the search box.

This book is set up so that you can open it at any point and be able to understand the information right in front of you.

The early chapters of this book deal with infertility issues that can be solved fairly easily, like timing. If you don’t have a basic understanding of human biology, Chapter 2can help you understand the complexity of the human reproductive system.

On the other hand, if the emotional aspects of infertility are impacting your relationships, Chapter 10may be more what you need to read.

The point is that you don’t have to read everything (although you certainly can, and you may discover something you never knew before)! Just flip to the table of contents or index, find a subject that interests you, and turn to that chapter.

However you choose to use this book, we hope it’s helpful.

Part 1

IN THIS PART …

Understand the ins and outs of pregnancy and fertility.

Get a good look at male and female reproductive anatomy.

Discover the role of genes in pregnancy.

Explore some lifestyle factors you may (or may not) want to tweak before a baby arrives.

Shedding light on why Baby Number Two may not be working for you.

Chapter 1

IN THIS CHAPTER

Understanding infertility

Exploring the odds of getting pregnant

Looking at infertility causes

Realizing why getting pregnant can be hard today

Adding up the costs of infertility

If you’re reading this book, the odds are good that you want to have a baby. You may actually have been trying to have a baby for a while without success, and maybe you’re becoming frustrated, annoyed, and a little scared — are you ever going to have the family you’ve dreamed of?

We want to help make this process easier for you — less stressful and more successful. In this chapter, we tell you the official definition of infertility (it may surprise you!), give you statistics on infertility today, show you how to shake your family tree for genetic problems, and talk about the cost of infertility — the emotional cost as well as the monetary cost. Where possible, the authors have relied upon the principles of evidence based medicine and The American Society for Reproductive Medicine guidelines. The authors have also used their extensive clinical experience to bring some practical advice. In the end, there is no one way to address a person’s fertility issues. Furthermore, things change rapidly, so an initial game plan may need modification as the process develops.