Answer from: Wael Saab, MRCOG, Bsc
A common question that you might ask your fertility specialist is: “My mom had problems having me or my father had fertility issues or my auntie had fertility issues does that mean I have infertility?” – so, is there any genetic reason for fertility problems? At the moment, there’s no gene for infertility. So, there’s no specific gene that you can go and test that will say that you are fertile or you are infertile. There are hundreds, if not thousands of genes that are associated with fertility whether in men or in women. Obviously, it will be very hard to test because there are lots of other variables that are related to fertility, that are related to environmental factors, so the answer is: it is not a 100 % no, because fertility is a multi-factorial problem including environmental causes, genetic causes, but for the time being, there’s no specific gene that we can test. You will discover that your doctor will always ask you if there’s any fertility issues in the family – specifically sometimes, just an example, that we might attribute if there’s a problem for example like a Y chromosome deletion in men. We know that this is obligatory, this will be transmitted to all sons born to that couple. So, we know that boys born to men who suffer from a Y chromosome deletion, will have infertility. So, the answer is fertility can have a genetic component, not the only component but unfortunately there’s no specific way to test for that.
Answer from: Evangelos Sakkas, MD, MsC
That’s why every woman who once she goes to a good IVF centre should always be tested for the genetic exams. Exams that we can do because there are one thousands of genetic exams. Main exams that infertile woman should do is her karyotype, cystic fibrosis, Fragile X and if she is precocious menopause.
In some cases, we see that women tell us that her mother had the menopause very early so at 35-40 years old or that she had problems being pregnant. All these things make us suspect that the problem can be in our patient. Some things seem to be inherited from the previous generation and that is why we should always ask patients about her mother or even in her extended family. Genetic causes of infertility unfortunately exist and we should be aware when we control patients.
Answer from: James Nicopoullos, MD
It kind of depends on what sort of fertility you’re talking about. There are some things that you’re more likely to have if you’ve got a family history. You’re more likely to perhaps have fibroids if you’ve got a family history, you’re more likely to have endometriosis if you’ve got a family history. Now whether or not that will give you fertility problems – we don’t know because there’s so many other factors that come in: how bad is it? Where are the fibroids? Where is the endometriosis? I think there are some subtle genetic causes of sperm problems. A man can have part of his Y chromosome that codes for sperm production are deleted. If that, for example, is the cause of infertility, then that can be passed on. There are some genes that cause premature ovarian failure or early menopause – if you’ve got one of those, then yes, that could be passed on to your children but the vast majority of infertility is genetically inherited.
Answer from: Radwan Faraj, MD
The quick answer is extremely unlikely to be genetically inherited in infertility causes; apart from certain conditions like Premature Ovarian Insufficiency (POI). In this condition, the ovary itself has fewer follicles or the follicles depleted very early at a younger age. And again, very occasionally more than 70- 80% of the cases are sporadic cases, not familial or not genetic. Very occasionally, you might have two members of the family, or a mother and her daughter would have the Premature Ovarian Insufficiency. That may lead also to premature menopause.
Apart from that, there are certain conditions regarding the male factor. Example, two brothers in the family have sperm conditions or oligospermia in which two brothers in the family might have problems with their sperm. Conditions like Cystic Fibrosis can be associated with the problems in the Vas Difference (absent tube that carry the sperms) can be familial. We don’t believe that fertility or fertility problems are genetically inherited.
