The Need and Unmet Need for Infertility Services in the United States

Abstract

This article estimates the number of US women of reproductive age who need infertility services because they want to have children but suffer impairments of their or their partners' fecundity; it also estimates the number who have obtained such services. Analysis is based on data from the 1982 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG), which involved a nationally representative sample of 7969 women aged 15-44 of all marital statuses. An estimated 3.5 million US women have fecundity impairments that could possibly be treated. 69% of these women say they would like to have children (or more children) and are therefore defined as needing infertility services. For 1/2 the couples in need, it is the woman who is thought to have the fecundity impairment; in only 10% of couples is the male partner described as having the problem. 49% of couples in need have received medical attention. The unmet need (51%) is concentrated among younger women: 72% of those who have not obtained services are under age 30. Blacks and Hispanics each constitute about 15% of the unmet-need group, as do nonmetropolitan women. 22% are poor and 6% are Medicaid recipients.