‘I had a one-night stand, now I’m infertile’

The test results were conclusive. It was the news that Lizzie Steele had been dreading - she was infertile. And she was just 18 years old.

Tests to find out the cause of her extreme stomach pains revealed Lizzie had less than a one per cent chance of ever conceiving. Her specialist said this could be traced back to a bout of chlamydia which had resulted in pelvic inflammatory disease.

"I was horrified," says Lizzie, a psychology student. "I was being told my chances of motherhood were practically nonexistent - and I was still in my teens."

But far from being a rare occurrence, increasing numbers of young women are suffering infertility problems. Although the average age of women seeking fertility treatment is 36, research shows that in some cases this is being caused by the lifestyle led in their teens and 20s.

Lizzie could have been paying the price for having a one-night stand on holiday two years before. "I'd had sex with a guy I met in Ibiza, but the condom split," she says. "When I got back to Britain, five days later, I got checked out at the sexual health clinic straight away. I was told I had chlamydia and given a course of antibiotics."

She later contracted chlamydia a second time, from another relationship. Again she was treated with antibiotics, and like one in every 10 women who contracts pelvic inflammatory disease, Lizzie has been left with fertility problems. The STD had spread and caused irreversible damage to her reproductive system. As a result it's highly likely she'll need fertility treatment to achieve her dream of motherhood.

Cases of the disease have been increasing rapidly - there were 123,000 incidents last year, largely affecting under-25s.

"I had no idea that my fertility could be affected," she says. "I imagined that, because of my age, I'd get pregnant easily."

When Lizzie, now 19, from Somerset, met her husband-to-be Oliver, 29, through friends two years ago, they knew they wanted a family together. Within six months, Oliver, a mechanical engineer, had already proposed.

Soon afterwards, Lizzie started to get excruciating stomach cramps. Her GP referred her to hospital for tests.

There she had a laparoscopy - the surgeon inserted a narrow camera tube through a tiny incision near her belly button. This showed scar tissue on both her Fallopian tubes caused by pelvic inflammatory disease, triggered by chlamydia.

Fertility specialist Dr Geeta Nargund, head of reproductive medicine at St George's Hospital in London, says: "There is new evidence that shows there is a decline in fertility not only in women in their 30s, but also in women in their late 20s.

"This is largely down to lifestyle factors, such as smoking, being either underweight or overweight, and, of course, unprotected sex which can lead to chlamydia."

Recent figures show that more women than ever before are having fertility treatment in the UK. "There is no doubt that these lifestyle factors can have a negative impact on fertility," confirms gynaecologist and fertility expert Michael Dooley.

In May last year, Lizzie had surgery to remove some of the scar tissue, in the hope this would help improve her chances of conceiving. After her operation, she busied herself with wedding plans - the couple got married in August 2008 and hoped for a honeymoon baby. But that didn't happen.

"I was so upset," Lizzie says. "Although I knew I'd have difficulty getting pregnant, I still hoped it would happen."

When she hadn't conceived, Lizzie went back to see her consultant. In January she had more tests which showed she'd stopped ovulating. Her specialist prescribed the drug Clomid, to help stimulate her ovaries. But further tests showed it hadn't worked. Devastated she'd been left infertile, Lizzie told her husband to leave her. But Oliver refused and vowed to stand by her.

And not only was Lizzie infertile, but she was too young to qualify for IVF on the NHS. National guidelines state fertility treatment should be available to women aged 23-39, although not all health authorities even provide this. Their only chance is to fund a course of treatment privately. But with one round of IVF costing upwards of £3,000, they can't currently afford it.

"Oliver and I have already looked into adoption, but that can take years. All we can do is start saving for IVF," she says.

"To any young women reading this, please, please look after your sexual health, because you just don't know what could happen in the long-term if you don't."

STRUGGLING TO CONCEIVE?

The birth of the world's first test-tube baby, Louise Brown, at Oldham General Hospital on July 25, 1978 gave hope to infertile couples everywhere. Since then, huge amounts of money have been spent on research to help those who would otherwise be childless. Millions of babies have been born because of IVF, and new breakthroughs are still being made.

If you're experiencing fertility problems, there are options:

IVF (in vitro fertilisation): The most common method of treatment, where eggs are removed from the ovaries and fertilised outside the body before being re-transplanted in the uterus.

Array CGH (array comparative genomic hybridisation): A fast new type of genetic egg screening for use in IVF, it can identify which of a woman's eggs are healthiest and therefore more likely to create a successful pregnancy.

IUI (intrauterine insemination): Sperm are artificially placed in the uterus with a catheter to ensure more are available to access the egg.

Egg donation: Another woman's egg can be donated and implanted if the woman undergoing treatment has either had primary ovarian failure, repeated unsuccessful IVF treatment or recurrent miscarriages.

Wellbeing of Women is funding research into illnesses which can affect fertility. In the past, the charity has also funded research into IVF, and its aim is to improve reproductive health in women.

PHOTOGRAPHY: SYRIOL JONES HAIR & MAKE-UP: KELLIE MITCHELL

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