Military life can be difficult to mix with a family life. Serving overseas can keep military personnel away from family and loved ones. Sometimes serving overseas can have a lasting impact on a veteran and can have negative effects on them.
One of these negative effects is an inability to start a family. Whether through physical or emotional causes, some veterans returning home from tours of duty overseas may find themselves experiencing infertility for one reason or another.

Sadly, it was only 2016 when military medical benefits started covering infertility, including IVF. Prior to that the problem of infertility was left unattended to. One of the issues that may attribute to the problem is that many soldiers are deployed during their 20’s and 30’s, which are the optimal years of fertility.

Unfortunately some are injured while on deployment and are physically unable to conceive a child when they return home. One method of combating this is for them to have sperm or eggs frozen before they leave for their tour of duty. This way if the unfortunate happens, the couple can still conceive a child.

Also, when they have sperm or eggs frozen, if the worst was to happen, the loss of life, the spouse can still use the frozen sperm of their lost loved one to conceive a child.

It isn’t just physical concerns that can lead to infertility in veterans either. PTSD can attribute to erectile dysfunction. Stress can also play a big role in fertility issues. The stress of becoming pregnant for women, or getting the wife pregnant for men before deployment can often have the opposite effect and make it impossible for a couple to conceive.