What Percentage Of Couples Are Infertile?
Around the world there are about 50 million couples who are infertile. The statistical data in different studies, in different times are not entirely similar, but one important factor has been consistent in most of the studies, that is secondary infertility remains higher than the primary infertility in many parts of the world. Secondary infertility means inability to conceive or carry the pregnancy until the baby is born after giving birth to a live child previously.
Causes for secondary infertility can be due to female problems or male problems or both. According to the systematic analysis of National Health Services – in 2010, 10.5% of females around the world experienced secondary infertility, and 2% experienced primary infertility. The occurrence of secondary infertility differs in many parts of the world, roughly it ranges from 6% to 16% of women.
Many researchers have found out that the risk of infertility increase with increasing age of the woman. However, there are less studies about male infertility.
The research article “National, Regional, and Global Trends in Infertility occurrence since 1990: A Systematic Analysis of 277 Health Surveys” revealed, in 2010 females in the age group of 20 -44, 1.9% had primary infertility and 10.5% of females had secondary infertility. Similar percentages were seen even in 1990 the only differences were in 2010 the primary infertility percentage is 0.1% lower, there was a significant drop in the primary infertility in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, and slight (0.4%) increase in secondary infertility was seen in 2010. Primary infertility was seen more in females aged 20-24 years than the older aged females. This study also showed 48.5 million couples throughout the world had difficulty in having a child after 5 years.
United States of America
According to 2006-2010 National Survey of Family Growth, CDC 1 in 8 couples have difficulty in getting pregnant or maintain the pregnancy. 11.9% of females have received of infertility service/treatment at some point in their life time. One third of infertility is due to female partner, one third of infertility is due to male partner and one third is due to the combination of problems in both parties.
According to National Women’s Health Resource Center, a couple whose age range from 29 – 33 years with a normal reproductive system has only 20-25% chance of getting pregnant at any given month. After trying for six months the chance increases up to 60% without any medical support.
Unite Kingdom
In UK 1 in 7 couples have problems in getting pregnant. This is roughly about 3.5 million people. 84% of couples will get pregnant naturally after having regular unprotected sex for one year. Couples who have tried to get pregnant for more than 3 years without any luck, the chance of them getting pregnant naturally within the next year is about 25%.
India
The primary infertility rate in India is about 3.9 to 16.8% according to WHO statistics. In India the infertility occurrence changes from one state to the other, it even changes in different tribes, castes who lives in the same region. In Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Maharashtra it is about 3.7%, in Andhra Pradesh it is about 5% and in Kashmir it is about 15%.
Summary
Around the world there are about 50 million couples who are infertile. The statistical data in different studies, in different times are not entirely similar but one important factor has been consistent in most of the studies that is secondary infertility remains higher than the primary infertility in many parts of the world. The research article “National, Regional, and Global Trends in Infertility Occurrence Since 1990: A Systematic Analysis of 277 Health Surveys” revealed, in 2010 women in the age group of 20 -44, 1.9% had primary infertility and 10.5% of women had secondary infertility. According to 2006-2010 National Survey of Family Growth, CDC in America 1 in 8 couples have difficulty in getting pregnant or maintain the pregnancy. In UK 1 in 7 couples have problems in getting pregnant. This is roughly about 3.5 million people. The primary infertility rate in India is about 3.9 to 16.8% according to WHO statistics.
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