Fertility Figures In The United States

Many couples today struggle with infertility. There are many potential causes for infertility, from certain diseases or illnesses to lifestyle choices. Even the choice to wait until you’re older to try to conceive can have an impact on your fertility.

Let’s take a look at some of the raw numbers in regard to fertility in the United States. Here are some figures for 2012:

• Number of women with fertility struggles. There are approximately 6.7 million women of the ages between 15 and 44 in the United States today that have at least some impaired fertility. That works out to almost 11% of women.
• Number of married women with infertility. In this case, infertility is defined as being unable to conceive for at least 12 months in a row. There are 1.5 million women between the ages of 15 and 44 that fall into this category. That works out to 6% of married women.
• Married couples who are infertile. There are approximately 2 million married couples who experience infertility each year.
• Pregnancy loss. About two million women lose a pregnancy each year. The most common cause at 1.2 million is termination. Miscarriage follows behind at 600,000. Approximately 64,000 women experience an ectopic pregnancy. 26,000 stillbirths occur each year, as well. Molar pregnancy accounts for 6,000 losses each year.
• PCOS and infertility. PCOS affects about 10% of women in the United States, and is responsible for causing fertility struggles for about half of those women.
• Male vs female infertility. In about 30% of all cases of infertility, the male is primarily responsible. The same number – about 30% - holds for women, as well In about 20% of cases, it’s a problem with both the male and female partners. Approximately 20% of infertility cases have no known explanation.
• Insurance and infertility treatments. Only 14 states have passed legislation that requires your insurance company to cover the costs of diagnosis and treatment for infertility. These include Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas and West Virginia.
• Number of women who have used fertility services. In total, it’s estimated that around 7.4 million women between the ages of 15 and 44 have used fertility services at one point or another.

As you can see, fertility is something that we, as Americans, are really struggling with right now. There are all sorts of theories about why this is; some of the theories are scientific, and relate to environmental factors. Others are sociological, and relate to how we’re changing as a society.

Regardless of the causes, infertility treatment is big business in the United Sates. With 7.4 million women having received fertility services, you can begin to see just how much money is involved in this industry. To further complicate matters, we’re still in the early days of this industry, and legislation has yet to catch up with issues like advertising for fertility services and the practices of fertility companies such as sperm banks. Vickie Barnes operates BabyHopes.com, with her husband. For helping people get pregnant.