Global Infertility Rates Generally Hold Steady

December 20, 2012

The World Health Organization, WHO

The World Health Organization says infertility rates around the world have remained relatively stable since 1990. Almost 50 million couples worldwide were unable to have a child after five years of trying. However, one region was a big exception. The WHO says infertility rates have declined in sub-Saharan Africa.

“This study is measuring infertility rather than fertility itself. And the reason that we set out to try to determine what infertility levels were is because we found that it’s a bit of a neglected area of reproductive health, said WHO statistician Gretchen Stevens, who led the study on infertility rates.

It analyzed hundreds of household surveys in 190 countries from 1990 to 2010. She says it took a different approach than previous research.

“In general, people have worried quite a bit about getting people access to contraceptives so that they could prevent unwanted pregnancies. But they haven’t worried as much about when couples are trying to become pregnant and aren’t able to do so. This is actually a first study that looks at trends in infertility worldwide and in different countries. And we thought that this might be able to raise the profile of the condition,” she said.

The results were published in PLOS Medicine, an open access medical journal. The study measured primary infertility – the inability of young women to have their first live birth – and secondary infertility – the inability the have another baby.