The DOI matches its Crossref record; 51 of the 51 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Defining infertility—a systematic review of prevalence studies
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Existing definitions of infertility lack uniformity, rendering comparisons in prevalence between countries or over time problematic. The absence of an agreed definition also compromises clinical management and undermines the impact of research findings. The aim of this study was to perform a systematic review of the literature to determine how infertility has been defined in prevalence studies and to come up with suggestions for a feasible and clinically relevant definition. METHODS: MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews were searched for relevant population-based prevalence studies published between 1975 and 2010. RESULTS: A total of 39 articles were included in the current review. The results highlight the heterogeneity of criteria used to define infertility and critical differences between demographic and epidemiological definitions. Demographers tend to define infertility as childlessness in a population of women of reproductive age, while the epidemiological definition is based on 'trying for' or 'time to' a pregnancy, generally in a population of women exposed to the risk of conception. There is considerable variation in terms of the duration of 'trying for pregnancy', the age of women sampled and their marital or cohabitation status. This leads to inconsistencies in determining the numerator and denominator used to calculate the prevalence of infertility. CONCLUSIONS: There is a need for an agreed definition for infertility. We suggest a clinically relevant definition based on the duration of trying for pregnancy coupled with female age.
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Cites
Meta-analysis of Observational Studies in Epidemiology<SUBTITLE>A Proposal for Reporting</SUBTITLE>
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Boivin, J., Bunting, L., Collins, J. A., & Nygren, K. G. (2007) · Human Reproduction · doi:10.1093/humrep/dem046 · Cited by 2,437
Zegers-Hochschild, F., Adamson, G. D., de Mouzon, J., Ishihara, O., Mansour, R., Nygren, K., Sullivan, E., & Vanderpoel, S. (2009) · Fertility and Sterility · doi:10.1016/j.fertnstert.2009.09.009 · Cited by 1,835
Zegers-Hochschild, F., Adamson, G. D., de Mouzon, J., Ishihara, O., Mansour, R., Nygren, K., Sullivan, E., van der Poel, S., & WHO, O. B. O. I. A. (2009) · Human Reproduction · doi:10.1093/humrep/dep343 · Cited by 1,043
Definition and prevalence of subfertility and infertility
Gnoth, C., Godehardt, E., Frank-Herrmann, P., Friol, K., Tigges, J., & Freundl, G. (2005) · Human Reproduction · doi:10.1093/humrep/deh870 · Cited by 603
Changes with age in the level and duration of fertility in the menstrual cycle
Dunson, D. B. (2002) · Human Reproduction · doi:10.1093/humrep/17.5.1399 · Cited by 574
Infecundity, infertility, and childlessness in developing countries
Rutstein, S. O., & Shah, I. (2004) · Cited by 398
The prognosis for live birth among untreated infertile couples
Collins, J. A., Burrows, E. A., & Willan, A. R. (1995) · Fertility and Sterility · doi:10.1016/s0015-0282(16)57650-x · Cited by 365
Guidelines for evaluating prevalence studies
Boyle, M. H. (1998) · Evidence Based Mental Health · doi:10.1136/ebmh.1.2.37 · Cited by 313
Definitions of infertility and recurrent pregnancy loss
(2008) · Fertility and Sterility · doi:10.1016/j.fertnstert.2008.08.065 · Cited by 307
Cited by
Inhorn, M. C., & Patrizio, P. (2015) · Human Reproduction Update · doi:10.1093/humupd/dmv016 · Cited by 1,926
Starrs, A. M., Ezeh, A. C., Barker, G., Basu, A., Bertrand, J. T., Blum, R., Coll-Seck, A. M., Grover, A., Laski, L., Roa, M., et al. (2018) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(18)30293-9 · Cited by 1,598
Barratt, C. L. R., Björndahl, L., De Jonge, C. J., Lamb, D. J., Osorio Martini, F., McLachlan, R., Oates, R. D., van der Poel, S., St John, B., Sigman, M., et al. (2017) · Human Reproduction Update · doi:10.1093/humupd/dmx021 · Cited by 505
“Other studies such as Anderson et al. (2009) and Gurunath et al. (2011) include those who seek medical advice in order to be able to make a partner pregnant.”
BackgroundCox, C. M., Thoma, M. E., Tchangalova, N., Mburu, G., Bornstein, M. J., Johnson, C. L., & Kiarie, J. (2022) · Human Reproduction Open · doi:10.1093/hropen/hoac051 · Cited by 506
Prevalence of infertility and help seeking among 15 000 women and men
Datta, J., Palmer, M. J., Tanton, C., Gibson, L. J., Jones, K. G., Macdowall, W., Glasier, A., Sonnenberg, P., Field, N., Mercer, C. H., et al. (2016) · Human Reproduction · doi:10.1093/humrep/dew123 · Cited by 471
“However, prevalence estimates of lifetime infertility vary widely, in part because there is no agreed or consistent definition of infertility (Gurunath et al. , 2011)andbecause studypopulations varybyage range,unitofmeasure-ment and relationship status.”
Metadata
- Authors
- Gurunath, S., Pandian, Z., Anderson, R. A., & Bhattacharya, S.
- Venue
- Human Reproduction Update
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2011-04-14
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 575-588
- ISSN
- 1355-4786 (ISSN-L)
- 1460-2369
- OpenAlex
- W2146748964
- Cited by
- 432
- References
- 51
- FWCI
- 2.89
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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