Infertility Statistics
Infertility is a problem affecting some 7.3 million women in North America alone between the ages of 15 to 44. Many of these women suffer alone without realizing that others share the same challenge and have successfully found a solution that have worked for them.
Cause of infertility
Age is the most common cause of infertility in women. A woman produces less and less eggs as she gets older, making it more difficult for her to bear a child. She can also suffer from impaired fecundity, a condition in which the woman suffers both from the difficulty of getting pregnant and carrying on the pregnancy. 11.8% of women between the ages of 15 and 44 years of age are suffering from this condition. In some cases, pregnancy may be impaired by polycystic ovarian syndrome or PCOS, a common female endocrine disorder affecting approximately 5% to 10% of women of reproductive age.
The age factor
The risk of infertility rises as the age of women goes up. In fact, 27.4% of women are infertile by the ages of 40 and 44. The infertility figures go down consistently with age. 22.6% of women are infertile by 35 and 39 years of age. 16.9% of women are infertile by the ages of 30 and 34 but only 11% of women are infertile by the ages of 15 and 29.
There is hope
Even with infertility women can still get pregnant with some treatment. A lot of women are turning to their doctors to help them conceive. In 2002, 11.9% or 7.3 million women between the ages of 15 and 44 years of age have received some sort of infertility services. 6.1% have received professional advice. 5.5% of women have received some sort of medical help to prevent a miscarriage. 4.8% have undergone a fertility test. 3.8% of women have received ovulation drugs. And 1.1% of women have received artificial insemination.
Some 15.2% of childless women between the ages of 35 to 39 have received any infertility service. It went up slightly to 17.3% for childless women between the ages of 30 and 34, while only 2.9% for childless women between the ages of 15 and 29.
Pregnancy is possible
For couples with infertility problems, conceiving a child may be difficult but not impossible; there are several fertility treatments available. One of the most effective treatments for infertility is in vitro fertilization (IVF). Younger women will have higher rate of success for IVF. For a woman at 31 years of age, the success rate is 38%. At 39 years of age, it goes down to 22% percent and only 10% live birth rate for a woman at 43 years of age.
Forty and up
For women above 40, the better option is to look for an egg donor. It has 45% success rate which is far greater than the 10% success rate with IVF. A 40-year-old woman will have a greater chance at conceiving a child by an egg donor than a woman at 39 who used her own egg.
