Fertility

The Fertility describes the ability of men and women to father a child together with a partner. It occurs for the first time with sexual maturity and remains in men for a lifetime, while in women it ends with menopause.

What is fertility?

There is talk of fertility when a person finds himself in a phase of life in which he is physically able to father a child. In boys and girls, fertility begins when they reach sexual maturity.

Shortly before this, children are able to reproduce at the beginning of puberty: ovulation takes place before the first menstrual period in a girl and sperm are produced before the boy's first ejaculation.

The fertility lasts for several decades and is more or less good depending on the phase of life. In healthy men and women, fertility is best in their 20s and 30s, but by the age of three it decreases again.

Men produce sperm for a lifetime and are theoretically able to procreate until they die. In women, fertility only lasts until the onset of menopause. Although women can still get pregnant during the menopause because the last egg cells are still maturing, this is unlikely.

Postmenopausal women have completely lost their natural fertility. However, it is still possible to insert and discharge an artificially fertilized egg cell.

Function & task

The fertility is the most important building block of human reproduction. Without functioning egg cells and sperm, no new life can arise and humans would not leave any descendants.

From a physical point of view, however, fertility involves more than the ability to father a child together with a partner. The ability to reproduce goes hand in hand with reaching sexual maturity, which must neither happen too early nor too late. The early onset of fertility would otherwise lead to early pregnancies for which the girl is not physically ready.

In addition, the beginning of fertility also includes the beginning of puberty, which changes the body of girls and boys greatly and makes them ready to reproduce and to look after a child. The ability to reproduce is accompanied by hormonal changes in the body that physically turn children into adults over the years of puberty.

In order to be able to procreate, not only the function and quality of egg cells and sperm must be correct, the physical requirements must also be met. In women, the fallopian tubes must be free from blockages; diseases such as endometriosis can severely limit fertility.

Physical dysfunctions that have a negative impact on fertility must also be excluded or treated in order to ensure fertility. However, fertility does not describe the woman's ability to carry a child to term or to father a healthy child, but only to allow a pregnancy to develop at all. If the man's sperm can fertilize an egg cell from the woman, the couple is considered capable of procreation.

Illnesses & ailments

Fertility is one of the most common health problems in modern society, but it does not have to be apparent immediately. Many men and women are affected by a lack of fertility, which becomes a problem at the latest when they seriously want to have children.

Restrictions on fertility can result from an unhealthy lifestyle. Cigarette and alcohol consumption are known to reduce the quality of sperm and also have a negative effect on the female body, but this is often more evident in women during pregnancy.

Fatty foods and foods with few valuable nutrients also have an adverse effect on fertility, as they impair fertility. At the same time, such a lifestyle often leads to obesity, which in turn disrupts the healthy hormonal balance and can have a negative effect on fertility, especially in women.

Physical impairments such as kinks, constrictions or diseases of the egg and spermatic ducts also lead to reduced fertility. They either do not let the reproductive cells through at all or no longer properly, which means that an egg cannot make it into the uterus and sperm cannot get to the egg.

Congenital defects can often be corrected by small surgical interventions, which means that fertility can be almost completely restored and nothing stands in the way of a natural pregnancy.

Mental causes are less common. Sexual difficulties such as lack of pleasure or erectile dysfunction also arise from stress, strain and exertion. The fertility can be permanently restricted. However, emotional triggers can only be considered after all physical factors have been clarified.

The ability to reproduce can be either severely impaired or completely destroyed by drugs and treatments for serious illnesses. Depending on the location of the cancer or the type of active ingredient, chemotherapy or radiation are known to have a negative effect on the reproductive organs and their cells. Whether or not fertility can be restored afterwards depends on the duration of the treatment and the active ingredient.

The disease itself can also impair fertility, for example in the case of cancer of the genital organs themselves. However, these are rare cases and are also examined last by the attending physician, as the lifestyle of the person concerned plays a role much more often in the case of insufficient fertility.