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The Unique Challenges of Secondary Infertility
Medically reviewed by Patricia Salber, MD, MBA
Secondary infertility is the inability to get pregnant after a prior pregnancy. It affects approximately 3 million couples.
You may be well-informed about a variety of healthcare topics but there’s a good chance you’ve never heard of “secondary infertility.” It’s the inability to establish a clinical pregnancy after a previous pregnancy whether or not there was a live birth. While it may not be a mainstream topic, secondary infertility affects nearly three million couples, double the number from 1995. It also accounts for approximately one-third all visits to see a fertility specialist.
Secondary infertility is similar in many ways to primary infertility when a couple has been unable to get pregnant after a year of regular sex when not using birth control. However, with one child or more, this diagnosis creates unique challenges including a lack of social support and the complexity of already being a parent.
What causes secondary infertility?
Many of the causes of secondary infertility are the same as for primary infertility.
