WHO reports on infertility prevalence

One in six couples worldwide is affected with infertility at some point during their lives, a report from the World Health Organisation (WHO) based on analysis of research from 1990-2021 has shown.

Defining infertility as failing to conceive following 12 months or more of regular, unprotected intercourse, WHO showed that prevalence varied between 17.8 percent for high-income countries and 16.5 percent for low- and middle-income countries. Regional variation also existed, with an infertility prevalence of 10.7 percent observed in the Middle East compared to 20 percent across the Americas.

'The report reveals an important truth – infertility does not discriminate,' said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general at WHO. 'The sheer proportion of people affected show the need to widen access to fertility care and ensure this issue is no longer side-lined in health research and policy, so that safe, effective, and affordable ways to attain parenthood are available for those who seek it.'

The report calls for universal access to fertility treatment, and greater availability of data on infertility on a national level. It highlighted a lack of male participants included in the research, particularly in studies carried out using cohorts from the Middle East and South East Asia region and called for more sex-disaggregated data to be included in fertility research to validate disparities found in prevalence between regions.

Alongside this report, WHO carried out a meta-analysis looking at funding and financial burden of access to fertility care in a global manner. The study, published in Human Reproduction, brought together 26 studies covering 17 countries. It showed that globally, fertility care was more likely to be individually-funded, rather than accessed through publicly-funded healthcare. In lower-income countries, a larger proportion of income was used in accessing fertility care. In fact, in over half of countries assessed the cost of one cycle of assisted reproduction treatment was greater than the average annual income of that nation.

'Millions of people face catastrophic healthcare costs after seeking treatment for infertility, making this a major equity issue and all too often, a medical poverty trap for those affected,' said Dr Pascale Allotey, director of sexual and reproductive health and research at WHO. 'Better policies and public financing can significantly improve access to treatment and protect poorer households from falling into poverty as a result.'