Article as shown on the WBNS 10TV website: 10tv.com

Couples Experiencing Secondary Infertility

May 16 2006 4:13PM

There is some bad news for a growing number of couples; one form of infertility is on the increase. The good news is doctors can improve on Mother Nature when it comes to helping a family grow.

When it came to expanding their family, trouble popped up for the Carlinos.

They had no problem conceiving their son Jacob. Tracy Carlino says, "It took us one month after being on birth control for four years."

It was another six years before daughter Isabella was born. Like one out of six couples, the Carlinos developed secondary infertility.

Dr. Grant Schmidt with Ohio Reproductive Medicine says, "Our bodies really were never designed to reproduce past mid-twenties."

Dr. Schmidt says fertility declines with age. As couples marry later and have one child, an increasing number find themselves unable to have a second.

"I never thought it would happen to us," says Tracy Carlino.

David Carlino says, "When you only have one, you start wondering, well, was this meant to be this way, or why can't we have more kids?"

Dr. Schmidt says with age, the number and quality of sperm decline and simply giving birth can cause scar tissue and other changes in the body.

"The most common thing we would do is an x-ray of the uterus and tubes just to make sure that the tubes have stayed open and that there's been no damage to the uterus," says Dr. Schmidt.

Tracy Carlino says, "He did diagnostic tests on both of us. There was nothing wrong. We were given the diagnosis of unexplained infertility."

The experts start with simple treatments like drugs for ovulation, artificial insemination. When that doesn't work, it takes a big toll.

"And that was just emotionally draining and devastating, and we didn't expect that," says Tracy Carlino.

So increasingly, doctors use in-vitro fertilization, in which sperm and egg are united in a test tube. Then the embryo is implanted in the mother. The technique, which was once considered uncertain, now boosts odds of pregnancy to fifty percent.

Dr. Schmidt says, "You have essentially a one out of two chance of walking away with a baby in a single month. Mother Nature can't come close to that in six months."

It worked for the Carlinos. David Carlino says, "It was truly a miracle."