A World Health Organization (WHO) report found that 1 in 6 people are affected by infertility across the world.
WHO fertility research scientist Dr. Gitau Mburu said, “In our analysis, the global prevalence of lifetime infertility was 17.5%, translating into 1 out of every 6 people experiencing it in their lifetime.”
“Lifetime prevalence of infertility does not differ by income classification of countries,” Mburu said. “Lifetime prevalence was 17.8% in high-income countries and 16.5% in low- and middle-income countries, which, again, was not a substantial or significant difference.”
Reporting from CNN:
The new data from WHO reinforces that more people need fertility coverage and access to high-quality care than was previously thought, said Dr. Asima Ahmad, an endocrinologist and fertility expert who serves as chief medical officer and co-founder of Carrot Fertility, a company that helps employers set up fertility benefits. She added that inequities emerge in who has such access to care, such as Black women who tend to experience inequities in access. “These inequities, I’m not surprised that they exist on a global level, because we already see the inequities in the United States domestically, with how infertility impacts different populations and how some populations have limited access. And even with the access that they finally get, they, for example, will have a lower rate of success or even a higher rate of miscarriage,” said Ahmad, who was not involved in the new WHO report. “A lot of people don’t have access to clinically vetted evidence-based information around what causes infertility, how to recognize it, and then when you do find out that you have it, how to treat it,” she said. “The other, which is one of the biggest barriers that we see, is financial access to fertility. In the United States, a lot of that access comes through the employer providing, for example, fertility benefits, but on a global level, that’s not necessarily the case, and finances tends to be the biggest barrier.”
