Clinical infertility in women

Fertility results from coordinate functioning of components of the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian-genital axis. In normal women, ovarian sex steroid hormones act as the mediators of these interactions. Infertility is a clinical manifestation of the failure of one or more of the components to function appropriately. Determining the locus of dysfunction provides the basis for rational treatment. For these purposes, both direct measurement of serum hormone levels and assessments of target organ function are utilized.