Infertility in young people, a rising phenomenon VietNamNet Bridge – In the past, most of the patients who needed infertility examinations at the HCM City-based Tu Du Obstetrics Hospital were at least 35 years old. Now, a lot of them are 18-20 and up to 35 percent of the patients are less than 35.    According to Doctor Nguyen Thi Tuyet of the Tu Du Hospital’s Infertility Ward, there are many reasons for this situation. The main reason is that people nowadays have premarital sex relations at a very young age while they do not have good understanding about sexual health. As a result, they are infected with sexually transmitted diseases. Some young women are unexpectedly pregnant. They are afraid of disclosure so they go to private facilities where offer illegal abortion services and suffer from side effects. Besides, part of young people have access to information about infertility early so sometimes, after several months having sex without contraceptive measures but are not pregnant, many couples visit infertility experts.  Another reason is infertility examination and treatments are no longer “deluxe” services. Previously, people had to go abroad for artificial fertilization with extremely expensive costs but now the technique is available in Vietnam, at reasonable prices. According to the Tu Du Hospital, infertility in young women is mainly caused by blocked fallopian tubes, endometriosis, polycystic ovaries and birth defects. Specifically, there are many reasons for blocked fallopian tubes: genital infection caused by chlamydia, gonorrhea, sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV and unsafe abortion. The infertility rate among men is also increasing, with the age is also younger than before. Doctor Tuyet says that there are two main reasons for infertility in men: there is no sperm and weak sperm.  No sperm is caused by congenital factor or by post-traumatic inflammation of testis, mumps or maybe blocked vas deferens. Aspemia is caused by spermatic cord varicose and genital inflammatory diseases. However, for most patients with aspemia, doctors cannot find anything wrong in their bodies.  According to experts, the reasons may be the use a lot of stimulants (beer, alcohol and cigarettes), stress at work and imbalanced diet. Dr. Tuyet says some causes of infertility can be cured while some others cannot. To prevent infertility among the youth, the doctor advises that youngsters should not have premarital sex and if they have, they need to be fully-equipped with knowledge about sexual health. According to the statistic on infertility in Vietnam, 30 percent of the infertile couples are due to the husband’s health, 30 percent owing to the wife's health, 30 percent by both and 10 percent is unexplained. The Infertility Ward of the Tu Du Hospital treats 200 to 250 patients each day. Consequences of cohabitation and bad lifestyle VietNamNet’s Thanh Huyen went to the hospital to see infertile patients.  At the Infertility Ward, she saw a lot of young couples. One of them is Mr. Dien and Mrs. Thuy, from the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong. Dien is 33 and Thuy is 25. The couple said they told their family that they went to HCM City for business. “We have been married for two years so our parents told us to not be so worried if we do not have a baby yet, but only we know the true reason,” Dien said. They have been married for two years but they had premarital sex for five years. During that time, Thuy used emergency abortion pills for a few times. Since their marriage, they have not used any contraceptive method but Thuy cannot be pregnant. “Doctors said that my wife’s oviduct is stuck, perhaps because of abortions,” Dien sadly said. The case of another young couple, Mr. Hai and Mrs. Thanh, both 23, from the southern province of Dong Nai is more complicated. Thanh said she suffered from miscarriage because her uterus was very weak to keep fetuses. The reason is also abortions before marriage. According to medical experts, up to 75 percent of the abortion cases suffer from uterus damage. Abortion makes the cervix opens early, weakened and finally it cannot carry the fetus. In addition, 10 percent of women after abortions have their oviduct stuck, which leads to infertility in the early stage, 30 percent in the second stage and 60 percent in the third stage, respectively. The risk of secondary infertility among the women who have at least one abortion is 3 or 4 times higher than others. About 25 percent of the women who have abortion in their first pregnancy will need a very long time for the next pregnancy and 5-10 percent of them will be infertile. The possibility of ectopic pregnancy is also 7-15 times higher than normal. For another couple from Binh Duong, the reason for infertility comes from the husband, Mr. Duc, 26.  Duc have got married for three years but the couple still does not have a baby yet. His family blamed his wife is infertile. Under family pressure, they went to the Tu Du Hospital for examination and it turned out that his wife has good reproductive health and the reason comes from him. The test showed that Duc’s sperm is washy and weak. According to doctors, this is the results of Duc’s previous lifestyle of having party and drinking all the time, plus cigarette addict.  Thanh Huyen