Infertility is much more common than you might think, but what exactly can cause couples to experience it?

This week marks National Infertility Awareness Week, and chances are someone you know is facing infertility. It impacts one in six couples.

“It’s unlike any other feeling,” Lior Schwartz said about discovering she was pregnant. “It’s just after a year and a half of hoping for this one thing, and it occupies your brain so much that’s all you can think about, and then getting the good news is really amazing.”

Lior Schwartz and her husband began trying to have a child six years ago. After several months without success, she decided to get tested. That’s when doctors diagnosed her with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, or PCOS.

“At that point, we came up with a plan,” she said. “Let’s go with IUI.”

Intrauterine Insemination (IUI) involves placing millions of the healthiest sperm directly into the uterus at the time an egg is about to be released. It took three IUI cycles before Schwartz received the call that it had worked.

“There are times where you can be so positive and say, ‘it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen,’ but you never know,” she said. “And just because it happened the first time, there are a lot of people who have a second unexplained infertility.”

The second journey proved even more challenging. Schwartz went through six unsuccessful IUI cycles before she connected with Dr. Bardos, a double board-certified OB-GYN and reproductive endocrinologist.

“She actually had a small niche in her uterus that, despite multiple fertility treatment attempts, prevented success,” Dr. Bardos said.

With the help of in vitro fertilization (IVF), the couple welcomed their baby girl.

A South Florida doctor outlines the factors driving a rise in infertility

Dr. Bardos says more couples are now experiencing infertility.

“One of the main reasons is delayed childbearing,” Dr. Bardos said. “So people are waiting longer to try to conceive compared to previous decades, and we know that as the ovaries age, both the quality and quantity of eggs decline.”

For those thinking about postponing fertility, egg freezing can be an option. He also notes that environmental factors such as obesity, smoking, and alcohol use contribute to infertility.

He adds that a third factor often goes overlooked: male infertility. According to him, 40 to 50 percent of infertility cases involve male factors.

“There is a whole field called reproductive urology that focuses on that,” he said. “Sometimes men have a blockage. They’re producing sperm, but it simply can’t come out.”

The good news, he says, is that there are many different paths available to help achieve a healthy pregnancy, though access to care remains a major hurdle.

“Many insurances don’t cover it, and that can be very difficult for patients because the cost of treatment is quite high,” he said.

“There are a lot of organizations that are now coming out, not just in the Jewish community, but even across the nation, that are supporting patients in this journey, which I hope will only increase,” he said.

If you’re interested in getting a baseline screening, you can visit a fertility specialist like White Glove Fertility or speak with your regular physician or OB-GYN.