The hidden infertile: infertile women without pregnancy intent in the United States

Infertility and fertility intentions, desires, and outcomes among US women

“…Further, extant research typically fails to differentiate between those who meet the medical criteria but do not realize they are infertile, those who perceive themselves to have a fertility problem although they do not meet the medical criteria for infertility, and those who both meet the medical criteria and identify as infertile. A few exceptions are Greil and colleagues' work on the "hidden infertile" (Greil et al 2009) and the link between perceiving a fertility problem and distress about infertility (Greil et al 2011b). …”

Does fertility-specific distress vary by race/ethnicity among a probability sample of women in the United States?

“…Greil and McQuillan (2004) and Jacob et al (2007) categorized infertile women into those with strong intent to become pregnant (women who say they tried to conceive for at least 12 months without conception) and those with weak intent to become pregnant (women who report having had unprotected intercourse without conception but who say they were "okay either way" when asked if they wanted to become pregnant at that time). Strong pregnancy intent is associated with higher fertilityspecific distress than lower pregnancy intent (Greil et al, 2009(Greil et al, , 2011b. On average, Black and Hispanic women have weaker pregnancy intent than White women (Greil et al, 2011a).…”

A New Way to Estimate the Potential Unmet Need for Infertility Services Among Women in the United States

“…12 Despite evidence that infertility is often distressing, fewer than 50% of women who meet the medical/behavioral criteria for infertility receive medical services. 11 Not all women who meet the medical/behavioral criteria for infertility, however, indicate that they are trying to or want to have a baby, 13 which suggests that some infertile women are not in need of treatment for infertility. Determining the number of women who both meet the medical/behavioral criteria for infertility and are trying to or want to have a baby is therefore a useful step to better estimate the potential need for infertility services among women in the United States.…”

“…22,23 Other researchers rely on women's selfreports of periods of regular, unprotected intercourse of a certain duration. 13,22 The ''duration'' or ''time to pregnancy'' approach, recently applied by Thoma et al 12 to a nationally representative U.S. sample, is an example of a self-report assessment method. Thoma et al used NSFG data but based their estimate of infertility on noncontracepting women's selfreports of whether they were trying to have a baby, and if so, how long they were trying.…”

“…Not all of those who meet criteria for infertility are trying to conceive, however. 13 Those who neither want to nor are trying to conceive do not have a potential need for infertility treatment even though they meet criteria for infertility. 22 Failure to include pregnancy intent may result in overestimation of unmet need for treatment because not all women classified as ''infertile'' by the clinical definition wish to have a child.…”