Infertility affects one in six people worldwide, warns WHO report

About one in six people in the world suffer from infertility, shows a report by the World Health Organization (WHO) published on Tuesday April 4. “And this, regardless of where they live and the resources at their disposal”, underlines the director general of the WHO, doctor Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in the preface of the document. It is, according to the WHO, a “major health problem”which affects 17.8% of the adult population in rich countries and 16.5% in low- and middle-income countries. “This report, the first of its kind in ten years, reveals an important fact: infertility does not discriminate”highlights Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

The report does not look at the medical, environmental or other causes of infertility, or how it changes over time, but provides a first look at its prevalence by analyzing all of the relevant studies from 1990 to 2021. “Infertility affects millions of people” and yet, notes the director of the WHO, “the topic is still understudied and solutions remain underfunded and inaccessible to many due to high costs, social stigma and limited availability”.

“The sheer proportion of those affected shows 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 ways , effective and affordable ways of achieving parenthood are available to those who want them”he asks.