Objective: To determine if the decline in infertility has been uniform across subgroups.
Design: Periodic data from the National Fertility Survey and the National Survey of Family Growth were used to determine which factors contributed to the decline in 12-month infertility in the United States.
Setting: National Survey of Family Growth, a periodic US nationally representative study.
Patient(s): A nationally representative sample of married women aged 15-44 years, N = 15,303 for pooled data across 4 survey years.
Intervention(s): None.
Main outcome measure(s): Estimates of infertility prevalence among married women aged 15-44 years.
Result(s): The decline in 12-month infertility in the United States from 8.5% in 1982 and 7.4% in 2002 was significant. This decline was evident in nearly all subgroups of married women. In the multivariate analysis, 12-month infertility was more likely among women who were older and nulliparous, were non-Hispanic black or Hispanic, and did not have a college degree. The decline in 12-month infertility was observed even after controlling for the compositional differences of the population over time.
Conclusion(s): Among married women in the United States, there has been a significant decline in 12-month infertility, which cannot be explained by changes in the composition of the population from 1982-2002.