US Infertility Statistics
Recommended Reading
Pregnancy Miracle
A. Powerful & Unique Guide To Reverse Infertility &
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How Many Women Are Infertile?
When looking at infertility statistics, it's important to first understand how certain terms in the relevant studies are being used. Some of the best data on infertility comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC defines infertility as the failure of a couple to become pregnant after having intercourse without contraception for 12 months or more. The term "impaired fecundity" is in some respects more general, and captures all women who have difficulty becoming pregnant or difficulty carrying a baby to term.
According to the CDC, approximately 7.3 million women of childbearing age (between 15 and 44) in the US are likely to have impaired fecundity. Overall, that means an impaired fecundity rate of about 11.8%. Many of these women will not become aware that they have a fertility problem until they try to start a family. When looking more narrowly at the population of married women of childbearing age, about 7.4% are infertile. This means approximately 2.1 million married women in the U.S. each year remain unable to get pregnant after 12 months of trying. Another 600,000 women experience pregnancy loss through miscarriage each year.
How Does Maternal Age Factor into Things?
That "childbearing age" range - from 15 to 44 - is awfully long. It is commonly known that a woman's fertility decreases with age. That's because each female is born with all of the eggs she will ever produce, and as she ages, those eggs also age and become less viable. A look at diagnoses by physicians illustrates the following breakdown of infertility rates by age group: For women age 15-29, 11% are infertile. The rate increases to 16.9% for women between 30 and 34, and jumps to 22.6% for women between 35 and 39. Women aged 40 to 44 experience about a 27.4% infertility rate.
Who Seeks Treatment?
While many medical researchers find that the actual level of infertility in women has not changed dramatically over time, the number of couples affirmatively seeking out help for their infertility has indeed increased, and as such these statistics are often more interesting. Because of the expected decline in fertility with age, it's not surprising that couples under 35 are more likely to seek infertility treatment than older couples if they experience trouble getting pregnant. According to a CDC report on 422 fertility clinics, in 2005, approximately 40% of couples that used some form of Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) were under 35 years of age, while only 9.5% percent were over 42 years of age. ART is defined by the CDC as any fertility treatment in which both sperm and eggs are handled, the most common of which is IVF. ART has become an increasingly common resource for infertile women, as evidenced by the near doubling in the number of ART cycles performed in the United States in recent years, In fact it's estimated that these days about 1% of all live births are achieved through ART.
When we look at infertility services more broadly, as including medical tests to diagnose infertility, medical advice and treatments to help a woman become pregnant, and services other than routine prenatal care to prevent miscarriage, the highest rate of childless women who have received any infertility service occurs in women between 30 and 34 years of age, at 17.3%. For those women between the ages of 35 and 39, only about 15.2% seek some form of infertility services.
What do we Know About Infertility and Race?
Unfortunately, there is no national data breaking out infertility rates by race or ethnicity. We have more data on which women are most likely to seek out infertility services. Typically they are older, with higher education levels and higher incomes. The National Survey of Family Growth gives us some insight into the likelihood that a woman will receive infertility services based on race. In 2002, 10.7 percent of white women reported ever seeking medical help to get pregnant, as compared to only 4.7% of African American Women, 5.6% of Hispanic women, and 7 percent of non-Hispanic other women (including Asian/Pacific Islanders, American Indians/Alaska Native and those of more than one race). These statistics may well indicate that better outreach about options for treating infertility is needed in non-white communities.
Anna Short has developed expertise on infertility through a combination of personal experience and thorough research. For more great information on infertility statistics, visit http://www.infertility-options-info.com. Don't forget to check out her free email mini-course on a wide range of infertility topics.
Recommended Reading
Pregnancy Miracle
A. Powerful & Unique Guide To Reverse Infertility &
Get Pregnant Naturally With Traditional Chinese Medicine
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