Infertility  is the inability of a person, animal or plant to reproduce by natural means for all of us to continue our lineage in the world we need to produce our own mankind, our on offspring.  The disturbance of to this process of producing children is called infertility. Infertility is a social taboo today, which brings a drastic effect on couples both physically, emotionally and socially.  Infertility as such is not an independent disease, rather it is a cardinal feature which may arise due to a number of  diseases.  Our society have their own unchanging habits, they find it amusing to discuss about married couples with no children.  They consider a childless mother as inauspicious, and is usually not allowed to participate in religious and auspicious ceremonies. Often she is ignored, insulted and laughed at.   Although there are number of vast thinking people today  our society still has patches of narrow minded people which is more than enough to destroy our happiness.

Allopathic view

There are several treatments available in allopathic medicine for both men and women to help conceive and maintain healthy pregnancy. Treatments are in the form of oral medication, injections and treatment cycles. Depending upon the cause many other techniques are also used. These techniques work best when the woman has a healthy uterus and the man has healthy sperm.  Most of the time the treatments  are extremely expensive and even though they use high-end-state-of-the-art technologies, they do not always work. In addition, these procedures have complications and strong psychological impact on most couples undergoing them.

Ayurvedic view
According to Ayurveda, infertility exists when a healthy couple is unable to achieve pregnancy after two or more years or fail to conceive for several years after the first delivery.  Ayurveda has been treated the cases of  infertility  with its medicines and therapies since  thousand years  before even discoveries of modern equipments and medicines. Ayurvedic  physicians have had to explore the human system in different ways without any tools. They closely watched what the human body did naturally and applied this accordingly coming up with different reasons as to why a woman got pregnant and why she could not become pregnant.  Ayurveda gives infertile women or couples the ability through treatment to become fertile and to improve the overall health to be able to conceive naturally without the use of Western modalities or in co ordinance with Western medicine.

In Ayurveda infertility is given under the following headings

1. Vandya (Absolute inability to become pregnant at all.)
2. Apraja (Primary infertility.)
3. Sapraja (Secondary infertility)

Causes of infertility

The important factor for a garbha are Ksetra,  Bija, Ritu  and Ambu.

1. Ksetra :-

Here ksetra refers to a healthy yoni or uterus. It is not only refers to the uterus but also to the other selected reproductive organs. It is very important that each female should know about the health of their reproductive system.

Following can cause infertility

1. Congenital or acquires diseases of vagina, cervix, uterus or fallopian tube
2. Injury to the artava vaha stroses (those organ through which ovum travels).
3. Injury due to some local surgery.
4. Prolapsed uterus, cervical erosion
5. Deep lacerations during previous labors
6. Also due to faulty male systems, like dryness of penis etc.

II Bija:-

Refers to the healthy sperm, ovum also the ovarian hormones.  Unhealthy male semen on analysis shows faults in the count, motility and the health of the sperms. Destruction of the health of eggs in PCOD, Cervicitis and other menstrual problems. Also refuse to the hormonal balance, which is very essential in building a strong garbha.

III Ritu:-

It refers to the kala or time period – ie. Fertile period. This can be described under theheadings of age and menstrual cycle.   When it refers to age – a woman can not conceive during her childhood or old age and also does not conceive during puerparium and to a certain extent during lactation. Also the ritu refers to the proper working of menstrual cycle. Her menstrual cycle should have proper dates every month and should have proper amount of blood flow. Any disturbance in her datus can cause infertility.

1. Ambu

Refers to the proper nutrient fluids. This refers to the abnormal diet. Imbalanced diet, unhealthy  food  substance,  feeding on fast food to satisfy hunger causes loss of datus (tissues). The conversion of food to shukra  (sperm & ovum) passes through a series of processes, so it is proven that healthy shukra  is  directly  related  to  food. Also  unhealthy  food influences the normal secretion of hormones and many inhibit pregnancy.  Also after pregnancy, if fertilized egg do not get enough nutrients or if the mother’s diet is incomplete the garbha fails to develop after implantation.

Other factors includes

1. Hridaya or manas

The calmness of manas is very important for a better pregnancy and motherhood. This may sound irrelevant in the past, but now it plays a significant role. Coitus with a woman who is hungry, or sorrow stricken cannot result in a healthy pregnancy. Another dreadful factor & stress, this is a fast growing mind disease. Couples rarely find time for each other, and the time find too is stressful with home and work disturbances. This too should be overcome by self adjusting and stress management treatment.

2. Loss of bala or strength

There is rare, but still relevant. Child marriage can result in the loss of physical strength and the capacity to become pregnant, so it is essential to follow diet, which strengthens the uterus and related organs.

3. Daiva or causes of God

There is an Ayurvedic factor, but still believed many of us. In short is a decision made to God that a particular couple becomes childless.  Much is not said about this in classical texts.

We at Apthasree

Here  we at apthasree believe that  to get a child  is a blessing of the god. Here  we  work  in this field to make this blessing more fruitful.  To conceive  is the desire of all parents but more important to have a physically and mentally  healthy child.  For this the pregnancy  should be  properly planned.  Properly planned in the sense the purification of egg and sperm along with purification and strengthening of the uterus has to be done for proper implantation.

For male we do treatments treatments to increase the quality and quantity  of sperm  by panchakarma treatments and internal medicines.  There  are special procedures like snehapana, vamana, virechana, vasthi  which can be done according to the person  for detoxifying and rejuvenating sperm. It is scientifically proved that  after these panchakarma and internal medicines there is an increase in the quality and quantity of  sperm which are ready for fertilization.  Similarly for mother also the strength of the uterus and For female also the strength of the uterus and balance of hormones can be obtained by internal medicines and also by panchakarma treatments.  Even after conception  the diet, medicines and therapies   can be advised to maintain the pregnancy.

The antinatal care plan can be adopted  in the plan of monthly routines  of diet, medicines and suitable therapies can be planned which will help in proper growth  & development of the fetus and easy and safe delivery.

Not only antinatal care, but post natal care  of the mother and baby can be planned.  The diet, routine and ayurvedic therapies, yoga for mother can be planned which will  help to regain the health completely. The care of the baby from first day  itself can be planned.

Conclusion

Being childless is not an illness, it is a slow growing tenour of the mind. When Ayurveda can give a number of answers with its medicine and special treatment it is time we put this problem aside and bring happy mothers in to this world. Apthasree ayurveda here it is with its authentic ayurvedic principles to help and treat the couple with infertility  by physically, mentally and spiritually detox therapies  to get a healthy child.