Abstract:
This study utilizes data from 47 Demographic
and Health Surveys in developing countries to
examine levels, trends, and differentials in
women’s inability to bear children. Five
principal measures were used in the analysis
on infertility: childlessness, primary and
secondary infertility, self-reported
infecundity, and indications of secondary
infecundity. In addition, levels of sexual
experience, pregnancy, and live births were
measured. Overall, by age 45 to 49, only 3
percent of sexually experienced women have
not had a birth. Seventeen percent of women
age 15 to 49 report themselves as infecund.
In this study, a woman is considered
secondarily sterile if she has not had a
child in the past five years, although she
was continuously married and did not use
contraception during that period. Secondary
sterility is most common in sub-Saharan
Africa. The study estimates that in 2002,
more than 186 million ever-married women of
reproductive age (15 to 49) in the developing
countries (excluding China) were infertile
because of primary or secondary infertility.
This number represents more than one-fourth
of the ever-married women of reproductive age
in these countries. However, using comparable
data, the study shows that infertility, both
primary and secondary, has declined in most
countries. There is no obvious pattern to
changes in the levels of infertility in the
countries most affected by HIV. Finally, the
study examines some of the consequences and
coping mechanisms of couples affected by
infertility.
Infecundity, Infertility, and Childlessness in Developing Countries (PDF, 3850K)