Infertility in American college alumnae.
OBJECTIVE
The objective of this paper is to present data on prevalence of infertility, causes and treatments based on self-reports of a sample of American college alumnae.


METHODS
A sample of 3940 American college alumnae, ages 37 to over 70 years, completed a self-administered questionnaire relating to infertility, its causes, treatment and treatment outcomes.


RESULTS
Of the entire sample (n=3940), 3.1% (n=121) had primary infertility; 14.0% (n=548) had secondary infertility and were treated; 4.7% (n=184) tried for more than 1 year without success but had pregnancies without treatment; and 62.4% had no problems with infertility; and 16% (n=616) did not try to get pregnant. The major causes were 'unexplained infertility' reported by 43.5%; low sperm count or low motility, 21.4%; and anovulatory cycles, 20.3%. Treatment by clomid was reported by 39.5%. The overall success rate, resulting from treatment was 45%. The highest success rate occurred when anovulatory cycles were treated with clomid.


CONCLUSIONS
Prevalence of primary and secondary infertility in this sample of American women is approximately 17%, similar to that observed for Sub-Saharan Africa.
Wyshak
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Department of Population and International Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. wyshak@hsph.harvard.edu
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D015984:Causality; D002996:Clomiphene / Q000627:therapeutic use; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007247:Infertility, Female / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy; D008019:Life Style; D008875:Middle Aged; D011247:Pregnancy; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D012099:Reproductive Techniques; D013076:Sperm Count; D013081:Sperm Motility; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014495:Universities
D002996:Clomiphene