INFERTILITY: CURRENT STATE

An estimated fifteen to eighteen percent of Spanish couples are infertile, and the trend is upward. It is calculated, moreover, that of this group, 60 % will turn to assisted reproduction procedures to be able to conceive a child. Social, cultural and economic changes help, at least in part, to explain such figures. For example, full access to higher education for women has led to their incorporation in the labour market, with the resulting delay in the intention to have children, given the difficulties of reconciling family life with work. Another relevant factor concerns the possibility, previously scarce, of changing partners over one’s life, which has meant that more women –whether or not they have previously had children – are likely to want children at a relatively advanced age with a new partner. The problem is that the probabilities of pregnancy, both naturally and via assisted reproduction techniques, decrease with age. For example, in the case of conception with assisted reproduction treatment, if the chances of success for a woman under 35 are 40%, by the time she is 40 they fall to 15%. In fact, the number of children per woman of childbearing age is one of the indicators that tends to move in the opposite direction to economic development. Thus, the highest rates are found in the most developed countries and the lowest in the least developed. In Spain, fertility rates are the lowest in the European Union. As regards the causes of infertility, in 40%-50 % of cases the cause lies with the man (lack or scarcity of spermatozoids or their low mobility, or high percentage of abnormal sperm), while in just 22.3 % does it lie with the woman (reduction of ovarian stock, endometriosis or blocked tubes); 16.7 % of cases have mixed causes and in another 14 % the causes are unknown