If you and your partner have been diagnosed as having fertility problems, it means you've been trying for a baby for at least a year without success. It doesn't mean you'll never be able to have a baby. There are no guarantees, but there are treatments that can help, whatever the problem.

Key points about treating infertility

• Treatments for infertility include hormones, surgery, and high-tech treatments such as in vitro fertilisation (IVF).

• Some couples may need only one type of treatment to get pregnant, but others will need to try more than one. It's worth weighing up the strain of some fertility treatments and the risk of possible side effects against the chances of success.

• Bear in mind that if you get pregnant you may still miscarry. As many as 1 in 5 couples who get pregnant with or without infertility treatment have a miscarriage. This can be very upsetting, especially if you've been trying to get pregnant for a long time. Treatment for infertility doesn't make a miscarriage less likely. The older the woman, the greater the chance of miscarriage.

Recently, doctors have been advised not to give fertility treatments to women who are very overweight (obese) unless they lose weight. To find out more, see Fertility problems and your weight.

Treatments for infertility

What treatments you're offered will depend on what is causing your infertility. Sometimes, doctors don't know why a couple can't get pregnant. This is called unexplained infertility. To read more about the types of infertility, see What is infertility?

• Treatments for women with problems ovulating: If you can't get pregnant because you have problems ovulating, it means that your ovaries are either not releasing eggs at all or not releasing them regularly. More...

• Treatments for women with blocked or damaged tubes: About 15 in 100 women who haven't been able to get pregnant have damaged or blocked fallopian tubes. These are the tubes that connect your ovaries to your womb. More...

• Treatments for women with endometriosis: About 1 in 20 women who can't get pregnant have a condition called endometriosis. This is a disease of the lining of the womb. The lining is called the endometrium. More...

• Treatments for male infertility: Men with fertility problems may have too few sperm (a low sperm count), abnormally shaped sperm or sperm that don't swim well. Sometimes men are unable to get their sperm into their partner's vagina. More...

• Treatments for unexplained infertility: Sometimes, doctors can't work out why a couple is finding it hard to get pregnant. But treatments can still help. More...

The following treatments may be used for different types of infertility. We haven't looked at the research on these treatments in as much detail as we've looked at the research on most of the treatments we cover. (To read more, see Our method.) But we've included some information because you may have heard of them or be interested in them.

• Frozen embryos and eggs: This is called cryopreservation. More...

• Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis: This may be used if you or your partner has a genetic disease. More...

• Donor eggs: This is when you use eggs from another women. More...

• A surrogate: This is when another woman carries your baby. More...

• Acupuncture: Some people use alternative therapies to help them relax when they're having fertility treatment. More...