According to a recent study from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Black, Hispanic, and socioeconomically disadvantaged women face significant barriers to to successful fertility treatment compared to other women.
In an examination of data from the World Health Organization, the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, and U.S. birth certificates, the authors found 12 percent of U.S. women aged 20 to 44 self-reported infertility between 2013 and 2020. Only 39 percent of these women had access to any kind of fertility treatment. Among those who did receive treatment, only 10 percent had a successful live birth.
While live birth outcomes were low among all women in the study, the authors uncovered significant racial disparities among women whose fertility treatment was successful. Following fertility treatment, Asian and White women were the most likely groups to experience a successful live birth, at 17 percent and 13 percent, respectively. For Hispanic and Black women who received fertility treatment, only 4 percent and 3 percent, respectively, had a successful live birth. Although White women were 58.5 percent of women who reported infertility, they had some 72.5 percent of live births following fertility treatment.
Among women from different educational backgrounds, 42 percent of those with an associate’s degree and 49 percent of those with a bachelor’s degree or higher had access to treatment, compared to 22 percent of those with only a high school degree. Following treatment, one-fifth of women with a college degree had a successful live birth, compared to just 1 percent of women with only a high school diploma.
According to the authors, these striking disparities highlight an urgent need for health systems and policymakers to implement interventions targeted at providing equitable access to fertility care for all women.