Coital Failure

Some infertile couples may experience difficulty in having a baby because of coital difficulty, infrequent intercourse or wrongly timed intercourse. Besides psychological causes, the physical causes are -

Male -

• Damage to the special nerves which cause erection. This could have been the result of an injury, surgery or disease.
• Impotence or erectile dysfunction due to deficient blood flow to the penis .
• Chronic illnesses such as kidney or liver failure and diabetes.
• Side effects of prescribed drugs e.g. certain drugs for lowering high blood pressure.
• Diabetes (30 % of diabetics suffer from some form of sexual dysfunction). 
• Hormonal eg. hyperprolactinemia or low testosterone levels.
• Heavy smoking, alcohol and drug abuse.
• Congenital penile abnormalities

Female -

• Painful scar (e.g. episiotomy) or a vaginal infection causing superficial pain
• Congenital abnormalities such as a tough hymen or unusually narrow entrance.
• Endometriosis when the woman experiences pain deep in her pelvis in the organs that surround the top of the vagina.
• Vaginismus or the inability of the woman to relax her vaginal muscles, preventing penetration by the male.