When we talk about fertility, we know that only one in 6 couples will be able to achieve pregnancy on the first try, and at the same time, one of those 6 couples will take at least 6 months to achieve it or even a few years. This is a statistically proven fact, however, this distribution is totally random.

Maybe this couple that achieved it on the first try wasn’t even trying to get pregnant, while this couple has been trying for years but they don’t know they’re doing something wrong. So, there are certain tips that can help you be one of the first type of people and reduce your chances of infertility.

Today I want to talk to you about the 30/30/30/10 method, which is a technique to rule out and resolve the most common fertility problems before they arise. By following it, you could be one of the people who achieve pregnancy on the first try. Remember that Knowledge is Success.

The 30/30/30/10 rule or method groups the main causes of infertility into 4. Obviously, the percentages vary slightly in each country, but to simplify things internationally we say that: 30% of infertility cases are due solely and exclusively to problems in the woman, 30% solely and exclusively to problems in the man, 30% are due to a problem between the couple and 10% are of unknown origin.

Let’s start from the beginning, within the 30% of cases due to female factors, the huge majority have only 2 causes: ovulation problems and blocked tubes.

The easiest way to know if you are ovulating is to write down your first day of each menstruation on a calendar, it doesn’t matter if they occur every 28 days or not, as long as they are more or less regular it is certain that you are ovulating. If your periods are irregular it may be due to age, women under 35 are usually more regular than women over 35. If you are under 35 and have irregular periods, it is most likely that you have Polycystic Ovary Syndrome or a hormonal imbalance.

Hormonal imbalances are relatively easy to identify because they are accompanied by excessive weight gain, changes in the skin that becomes much more oily, sweaty or dry, excess acne, hair loss, digestive problems, etc… Many small ailments that do not usually occur or that appear and disappear every 28 days approximately.

There are ovulation tests that can be bought in pharmacies, but I don’t like these very much because all they do is measure your temperature and hormone levels to calculate if “in theory” you should be ovulating, but it is not a 100% sure fact, because even if your temperature and hormones go up, your egg may still be stuck in the ovary or in the fallopian tubes, which brings us to the other main problem: The fallopian tubes.

The only way to know if your tubes are blocked is to go to an x-ray lab to have a hysterosalpingogram done, but please don’t let them lie to you. The hysterosalpingogram is only used to see if the tubes are blocked, it is not used to unclog the tubes. If the doctor or radiologist tells you that they can put liquid in with a lot of pressure to unclog them, the only thing they will achieve is to damage the tubes and even if the x-ray shows that the liquid has already passed, as soon as they remove the pressure on the tube it will collapse again.

The tubes become blocked by infections, endometriosis or anatomical defects. If it is due to infection we give antibiotics, if it is due to mild endometriosis there are medications and when it is due to an anatomical defect you have to operate, no case is resolved by putting liquid in with high pressure.

Let’s move on to the next 30%, which is exclusively a male factor. You can’t imagine the number of cases that come because they have been trying to get pregnant for 3, 5, 8 or even 10 years and the woman has already had tests, has already injected a bunch of medicines, has even had surgery or has had treatments for cysts or whatever else comes to mind and when you ask them if their husband has already had a semen analysis they say no, not yet.

But why not!? The truth is that a semen analysis is a test that every man should have, at least out of curiosity once in his life. Don’t you have the slightest interest in knowing how well your sperm swims? and much more so if you are already thinking about having children. It is a quick and easy, inexpensive test. You come to the clinic, leave your semen sample and if you want you can wait 30 or 40 minutes, if not we will send you your results by mail and with that you could save yourself years of frustration.

I want to take this opportunity to emphasize the issue of years of frustration because the next 30% refers to cases of infertility due to couple issues. When we hear about couple problems, most of us think that this means that both are 100% healthy and fertile independently, but that there is a genetic or blood incompatibility, but the truth is that it doesn’t.

What happens in the vast majority of cases is that couples get together when they are young and because they are young they assume that they are super fertile, so they use contraceptive methods for several years and when they finally decide to have children it is very difficult for them to get pregnant. There are many people, including some doctors, who blame the contraceptive method, they often say that if you used contraceptives for several years now your fertility will take several years to return, which is totally false. As soon as you stop using contraceptives, natural fertility recovers immediately.

I invite you to search on Google, search on social networks, there are thousands of people who share their own cases, sometimes even in a funny way, saying that if they had known they were infertile they would have saved thousands of pesos on contraceptives. Listen to me carefully, human beings are very bad at using contraceptive methods. Sometimes we forget to take the pill one day, sometimes we don’t find the condom in time, and well… What! Sometimes our method or rhythm fails, this is a fact that happens to everyone. To everyone!

So, here’s a warning: If you use the rhythm method, meaning that you only have sex on days of low fertility and you also use birth control pills and condoms, you will probably be able to go 2 or even 3 years without getting pregnant. This is normal in these cases, but if you only use pills or only use condoms or only use the rhythm method and you have been having sex for more than 2 years without an accidental pregnancy, you should go to a fertility consultation because I guarantee that a fertile couple, who are really very fertile, will get pregnant in less than 2 years when they only use a contraceptive method.

But anyway, in summary, I wouldn’t call the last 30% the couple factor, I would call it the time factor because there are always two warning signs for these cases: Being together for more than two years without a pregnancy, even if it’s just accidental, and being over 35 years old. At 35 years of age, fertility is still good, but it would be worthwhile not to leave things to chance; get studies done.

The last 10% refers to unknown causes, now we are talking about cases in which both are of an excellent age, there are also good hormonal levels, as well as a good amount of healthy eggs and sperm but for some reason pregnancy is not achieved.

Cases of female factor, male factor and partner or time factor, as I like to call it, can be easily resolved with medications or low complexity methods but this last 10% are cases in which there are two options:

We can dedicate ourselves to carrying out all kinds of studies from ultrasounds and resonances, hormonal and biochemical tests to biopsies and genetic studies to try to find the exact cause, and there is the possibility that we simply do not find it, the other option is to go directly to in vitro fertilization.

The advantage of going directly to in vitro is that we eliminate all the variables that could prevent pregnancy. Since the embryos are growing we can realize if something is out of place or even carry out genetic studies to choose the best candidates to transfer. I remind you that we already have several videos with specific advice to improve the success rates of In Vitro Fertilization or IVF but the most essential thing is that the embryos are incubated for 5 full days before making the transfer, and if the woman has a very thin endometrium or there are signs of hyperstimulation it would be better to vitrify the embryos and try to implant them at another time.