Infertility and Impaired Fecundity in Women and Men in the United States, 2015-2019.

Abstract

Objectives-Using National Survey of Family Growth data from 2015-2019, this report presents updated national estimates of infertility in U.S. women and men and estimates of impaired fecundity (physical ability to have children) in U.S. women. Detailed demographic breakdowns are also presented, and overall estimates for 2015-2019 are compared with those for 2011-2015. Methods-Data for this report come primarily from the 2015-2019 National Survey of Family Growth, which consisted of 21,441 interviews with men and women ages 15-49, conducted from September 2015 through September 2019. The response rate was 65.9% for women and 62.4% for men. Results-The percentage of women ages 15-44 who had impaired fecundity did not change between 2011-2015 and 2015-2019. The percentage of married women with impaired fecundity also remained stable over this time period. Among all women, 13.4% of women ages 15-49 and 15.4% of women ages 25-49 had impaired fecundity in 2015-2019. The percentage of married women ages 15-44 who were infertile rose from 2011-2015 (6.7%) to 2015-2019 (8.7%). Among married and cohabiting women ages 15-49 in 2015-2019, 7.8% had infertility. Both infertility and impaired fecundity were associated with age for nulliparous (never had a live birth) women after adjusting for other factors. Some form of infertility (either subfertility or nonsurgical sterility) was seen in 11.4% of men ages 15-49 and 12.8% of men ages 25-49 in 2015-2019. . Conclusion-Although these findings are not nationally representative, this report illustrates how linked NHCS-HUD data may provide insight into maternal health outcomes of patients who received housing assistance compared with those who did not.