Family Planning

Perhaps the best indicator of the North American and increasingly worldwide desire for children is the growing ongoing concern with infertility, something that is also part of family planning. Somewhere between 10 and 15 percent of all couples have difficulty conceiving, with the causes about equally divided between men and women. Major causes include venereal infections, failure to ovulate, low sperm count, obstructions in either the male or female reproductive organs, and impenetrable cervical mucus. Sometimes these problems can be treated with antibiotics, surgery, or hormones. If these methods fail, couples may also try artificial insemination or in vitro fertilization— approaches that have have been successful for many couples. The down side to their use, however, is that now that these technological approaches to conception are available, some couples feel obligated to try to have a baby. The complex approaches, including in vitro fertilizations, are expensive, time consuming, and often disappointing.