Preventing Infertility, Reproductive Health Issues, Chapter 23, Family Planning: A Global Handbook for Providers, Johns Hopkins INFO Project

Family Planning

A GLOBAL HANDBOOK FOR PROVIDERS

Family Planning Handbook
Complete PDF | Chapter 23 PDF

Preventing Infertility

Infertility is often preventable. Providers can:

Counsel clients about STI prevention (see Sexually Transmitted Infections, Including HIV, Preventing Sexually Transmitted Infections). Encourage clients to seek treatment as soon as they think they might have an STI or might have been exposed.
Treat or refer clients with signs and symptoms of STIs and clinical PID (see Sexually Transmitted Infections, Including HIV, Symptoms of Sexually Transmitted Infections). Treating these infections helps preserve fertility.
Avoid infection by following proper infection-prevention practices when performing medical procedures that pass instruments from the vagina into the uterus, such as IUD insertion (see Infection Prevention in the Clinic).

Contraceptives Do Not Cause Infertility

With most contraceptive methods, there is no delay in the return of fertility after use is stopped. The return of fertility after injectable contraceptives are stopped usually takes longer than with most other methods (see Progestin-Only Injectables, Questions 6 and 7, and Monthly Injectables, Questions 10 and 11). In time, however, women who have used injectables are as fertile as they were before using the method, taking aging into account.
Among women with current gonorrhea or chlamydia, IUD insertion slightly increases the risk of pelvic inflammatory disease in the first 20 days after insertion. Still, research has not found that former IUD users are more likely to be infertile than other women (see Copper-Bearing IUD, Question 4).