About one in six people worldwide is affected by infertility. According to a report by the World Health Organization (WHO) published on Tuesday April 4, 17.5% of the world’s adult population would be affected during their reproductive life by at least one episode of infertility, defined as an inability to achieve pregnancy after twelve months or more of regular unprotected intercourse. More generally, it is an estimate of all the difficulties encountered during reproductive life.
This very high figure was obtained by analyzing 133 studies carried out in all regions of the world between 1990 and 2021, using different methodologies. The way in which the data was compiled does not at this stage allow us to conclude that there is an upward or downward trend in this indicator. Such data smoothed at the global level should therefore be interpreted with caution, but it has the merit of emphasizing the fact that infertility is very common and affects all societies in the world.
Regional disparities
Indeed, estimates of the prevalence of infertility are very close between countries with different income levels: it is 17.8% in high-income countries, and 16.5% in low-income countries. or intermediary. Regional disparities were identified – with variations ranging from 10.7% in the WHO region comprising the Middle East, North Africa, Horn of Africa and Central Asia to 23.2 % in the Pacific region running from China to New Zealand – but the vast majority of studies having been carried out in Europe, the figures for this region remain the most reliable, with a prevalence of 16.5%.
“The report reveals an important fact: infertility does not discriminatecomments Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the WHO. The sheer proportion of people affected points to the need to expand access to fertility care and to ensure that this issue is no longer sidelined in health research and policy, so that safe, effective and affordable ways to achieve parenthood are available to those who want them. »
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Some authors of the report have simultaneously published, in the journal Human Reproductiona study showing that the medical costs paid by patients for the treatment of infertility are often higher than the average gross domestic product per capita, which makes it unaffordable for most people, considering that the income of a large number of people is lower than the national average. “In countries without financing mechanisms, the cost of an in vitro fertilization cycle was even more than double their average annual income”write the authors of the study.
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