According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), infertility affects about 6 percent of women aged 15 to 44, which amounts to about 1.5 million women in the United States.
Unfortunately, about 25 percent of these infertility cases are unexplained, but a new study by researchers at the University of Ferrara in Italy may have exposed an unlikely culprit a little-known member of the herpes virus family, called HHV-6A.
HHV-6A was first discovered back in 1986, according to the press release, and it’s one of nine human herpes viruses.
However, its true prevalence is unknown since HHV-66A is typically undetectable in the blood or saliva.
“This is a surprising discovery," Anthony Komaroff, a professor at Harvard Medical School, told the Telegraph U.K. "If confirmed, the finding has the potential to improve the outcome for a large subset of infertile women."