What exactly will a doctor do if you have been unable to get pregnant?

On Lunchtime Live, Professor Shane Higgins, Master of the National Maternity Hospital said a couple should contact their GP after 12 months of trying for a baby. 

“They [will be] checking that you are ovulating every month,” he said. 

“Checking to see if your fallopian tubes are patent [open] and a similar analysis on the male partner. 

“What they’ll do is if you’re ovulating every month, that’s dealt with, that’s taken care of. 

“Tubal patency [openness] will be any number of a number of tests to see that the egg and sperm can meet - and that’s imperative for pregnancy to take place. 

“Then the third test will be seminal analysis where they look at several factors; the volume of the ejaculate, the number of sperm that per male and motility and morphology.”

According to the HSE, around one in six heterosexual couples in have fertility problems.

Main image: A couple with a pregnancy test. Picture by: Alamy.com.