How long do you try for a baby before seeing a doctor?

Unfortunately also for how long ladies need to try before we start ringing the alarm bells or we start worrying about fertility issues. In general, ladies should try for approximately a year before they start thinking that there might be a problem. Before seeking fertility advice. Unfortunately there are no direct signs, although apart from some science which will be discussed at some point in time, there are no signs for infertility. In general, ladies who have been trying for a year and things that are not working, then we start thinking there might be fertility issues. That might be related to what we refer to as a “male factor “infertility which is related to the sperm or the male partner or a female factor infertility. In general, we start advising couples or ladies to start seeking medical help after a year. Sometimes, I have to admit, we might ask them to seek even earlier – around six months, if they started planning to start a family at an older age group and by an older age group I mean ladies who are a little bit older than 35 or 36. That doesn’t mean that medical treatment should start after six months but at least some investigations might be done after six months or so just to make sure that we don’t have any major problem that might be causing fertility issues.

Okay. Well, I think with those ones again I would put my primary care GP hat on there and I think how long you leave it depends on various factors: most importantly up at the top of those list of factors would be female age and I think, if you’ve got a young woman under 30 with regular cycles and no particular previous history of any significant illness or operations and a partner who’s otherwise as far as you know fit and well, then I think that the conventional guidance in the UK would be a year – is a reasonable amount of time and I think that’s fair enough. Approximately eight to nine couples out of ten, will conceive in that context if the ladies have regular cycles. If you look at background population stances where that year of waiting can be a year of complete waste of effort really so, for example, basic history taking – find out if the lady has irregular cycles, if she’s having three or four periods in a year – it’s extremely unlikely that she’s going to necessarily ovulate and even if she does ovulate, you’ve got very little chance of necessarily being able to predict when the ovulation occurs and therefore to time your intercourse appropriately, so ladies with erratic cycles need looking at sooner and start working them up sooner is very important. Ladies who are significantly older which is a huge part of the workload certainly in the organization I work for and previously as well, ladies who are over 35 and certainly ladies who are approaching 40 – it’s absolutely essential that you don’t leave ladies like that waiting for another year – first of all, their own fertility is declining and certainly, as you approach 40 and go beyond 40 that decline becomes relatively precipitous. The other really important issue within the UK environment is that many areas have funding restrictions that really start kicking in at 40 and if you just leave couples in the hope that they might conceive, you may end up excluding them from the funding criteria that are applied for NHS infertility treatment. So, I think, you’ve got to be aware of those things and you’ve got to be willing to act more aggressively towards investigation and referral, so that the opportunities are not missed.

A woman is younger than 35 or less than 35 years old and the couple has been trying to have a regular, unprotected intercourse for the whole year (one whole year) or twelve months and they have not had any success, that’s the time that they should come and get some help and if the woman is older than 35 then it is six months of trying (regular, unprotected intercourse) if they’re not successful then they should come and ask for help.

Actually until 35 years old a woman can wait until one year of free sexual intercourse before going to see a doctor.
After 35 years old, she should wait a little bit less – let’s say from six to eight months before consulting a specialist.
How to see if she’s fertile?
Let’s say that there is no test to see if a woman is fertile. It’s not so correct to say a woman is fertile or not fertile. Age is the only common factor that gives us an idea of the fertility of a woman: younger she is better for fertility.
The only tests that exist today do not show us if a woman is fertile but show us more the ovarian reserve – so this test shows us how let’s say a strong and big ovarian reserve is so how many eggs we have in her ovaries. As far as the fertility issue is concerned, let’s say that age is the only thing that should concern a woman.

Generally we recommend couples to try at least for a year before they approach a fertility unit or their GP for a fertility reference unless they are over 35 or have problems before like irregular periods or infrequent periods or have they had any sexually transmitted infection and suggested that they could have a tubal problem then, they could come for an early referral but generally most of the couples who are fit and healthy should try at least for a year before reaching for a help.

Okay, so traditionally speaking, couples will try to conceive for probably around 12 months before we think they have difficulty conceiving. The reason behind that is, as I said before; women have really good fertility and the couples in general, around 85% of them will conceive within the first year. In general, you need to see your doctor after 12 months of trying. However, one rule doesn’t fit all. Occasionally, you may need to see your doctor before that even after five or six months. An example of these cases in which we need to seek help early is if you are in your late 30s or 40s because the reproductive age is important. We know women have a higher reproductive age in the early 20s and early 30s. So, if you’re 40 and not able to achieve pregnancy in six months, I would advise you to start some investigations. Other conditions include previous surgery on the tubes or if you have a condition we call endometriosis, or if you have a health condition that will compromise your fertility. Like if you have uncontrolled diabetes, or if you have a medical condition, you need to optimize your health before that. The same will apply to a male partner. If your male partner had surgery on his testicles or he has a problem with his sperm count or a previous vasectomy, I would advise you to see your doctor sooner rather than later.