Is infertility hereditary?

A recent news article raised eyeballs with its headline which said that a bollywood celebrity made a list of all the diseases and disorders that were ever found in the history of her fiancee’s family.

Good idea, eh?

It’s always recommended to be proactive and take a precautionary measure to know things beforehand and act in a proactive manner.

Well, what about infertility? What if someone in your or your extended family was ever diagnosed with it? First question you’d ask your gynaecologist would be if it’s hereditary?

There are a lot of factors behind infertility. Let’s talk about them.

Low sperm motility or low sperm count which contribute to male fertility are not generally hereditary. The quality and quantity of semen also depends on a lot of external factors the person is exposed to.

Exposure to toxic air, smoking too much and consuming a lot of junk food does contribute towards low sperm quality but isn’t usually something that will be passed to the next generation.

In the case of female fertility, there might be a little more to be concerned about when it comes to infertility being hereditary.

Endometriosis, a situation which refers to the appearance of cells from the endometrium (the lining of the uterus) outside the uterus, most of the times, on the ovaries is a cause of infertility. The cells from the uterus lining are influenced by hormonal changes caused by the menstrual cycle. This is something which can be hereditary that you might want to look into.

A bunch of other factors which contribute to infertility in women like PCOS, or polycystic ovarian syndrome are mostly caused because of lifestyle, habits and improper diet instead of genetics.

Also, poor quality of eggs and blocked or damaged fallopian tubes which are also causes of infertility are not hereditary in most cases.

The Flip Side

The subject of fertility has not been explored enough yet by the researchers and experts in the field of fertility.

A study carried out in Brussels, concluded that men who were born using ICSI (intracytoplasmic sperm injection) had a lower sperm concentration and two fold lower sperm count and motile sperms.

What you should do?

The best thing to do whenever you encounter history of infertility in your family, is to consult a fertility expert and get a test done. And like it goes with everything in life, the sooner the better!