The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published a fact sheet on in vitro fertilization (IVF) use across the United States.
Infertility is a common challenge affecting millions of Americans in the United States and can have important implications for individuals’ well-being. According to the most recent National Survey of Family Growth, approximately 9% of married women aged 15 to 49 years old are estimated to experience some form of infertility. An earlier version of the survey estimated that approximately 9% of men aged 15 to 44 years old experience some form of infertility. As a result of experiencing challenges to conceive, an estimated 1 in 8 women between the ages of 15 and 49 years old have received infertility services in their lifetime.
Key points:
- Infertility affects millions of Americans in the United States at some point in their life.
- Difficulty conceiving can be caused by a variety of factors such as age, health conditions, and for couples who are same sex or individuals without a partner and cannot otherwise conceive. In addition, some couples experience unexplained infertility where tests reveal no obvious causes of infertility.
- Fertility treatments, including assisted reproductive technology (ART) procedures such as in vitro fertilization (IVF), allow those who experience infertility a potential path to expand their families.
- IVF represents greater than 99% of ART procedures performed and is an important fertility treatment option because it can help individuals to conceive who may not be able to using other fertility treatment methods.
- In 2021, 86,146 infants born (or 2.3% of all infants born in the U.S.) were conceived through the use of ART.
- IVF enables individuals who use fertility preservation services to save their eggs, sperm, or reproductive tissues to have children at a later time.
- In 2018, over 69% of the 120,000 individuals of reproductive age diagnosed with cancer required fertility preservation procedures and services, now considered a standard of care.
- Use of ART occurs across the country. The top ten states with the most births using ART in 2021 were California, New York, Texas, New Jersey, Illinois, Massachusetts, Florida, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Georgia.
