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Infertility Treatments Decline, CDC Reports

By Cheri Cheng | Update Date: Jan 22, 2014 02:07 PM EST

According to new statistics compiled by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the number of women seeking fertility treatments has declined throughout the years. In this new report, not only are less women turning to these treatments, the researchers reported that they found a huge divide among the women who seek treatment and those who do not.

"We're not seeing dramatic increases over time in women who have had any type of medical service for infertility," said report author Anjani Chandra, a health scientist with the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics according to HealthDay reported by Philly.

For this study, the researchers reviewed survey data on over 22,000 men and women between the ages of 15 and 44. The surveys were conducted from 2006 and 2010. The participants were married from 1982 to 2010. The researchers found that the percentage of married women getting fertility treatment has declined from 8.5 percent to six percent. The percentage of women who went to fertility centers for information on getting pregnant, infertility tests, artificial insemination and drug treatments fell from 20 percent to 17 percent form 1995 to 2010.

The team also found that the number of women between the ages of 24 and 44 who never had children and sought fertility treatment fell from 56 percent in 1981 to 38 percent within the study's time frame.

"We think this is a consequence of delayed childbearing among all women," Chandra said. "They're not necessarily getting married or trying to have a child until later on, and may be more likely to pursue infertility [services] beyond the age of 44."

In a more recent report, the researchers found that when it comes to money, 21 percent of the wealthiest women sought out treatments where as only 13 percent of the poorest women did as well. In terms of racial differences, the researchers reported that 15 percent of white women got some kind of fertility treatment in comparison to the eight percent of Hispanics and black women who sought similar treatments.

"Whites and Asians are much more likely to have partners and families who encourage fertility treatments. African Americans and Hispanics, to a lesser extent, are less likely to be encouraged by family members and partners to use fertility treatments. Part of the issue may be that these groups have less trust in medical institutions," Arthur Greil, a professor of sociology at Alfred University in New York commented. "There's more going on than just access."

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