Introduction

"Marriage, a house, a baby"—a traditional chain of events that many young people dream about for the future. Now, added to the puzzle of finding the right mate and affordable real estate, infertility may become another problem on the way to that dream.

For a man, fertility means the ability to impregnate a woman; for a woman it is the ability to conceive and bear a child. We take fertility for granted and indeed, five out of six couples will get pregnant within a year of trying. But the final proof of fertility—a baby in your arms—is an unrealized goal that sends over one million people a year into infertility treatment.