Infertility drugs: making miracle babies

Market Insight - 13 November 2008

There is a growing market for infertility drugs driven by the obesity epidemic and women delaying the age at which they choose to become pregnant, reports Dr Nicole Avena.

For most couples, starting a family is a joyful and exciting event, and 75% of women get pregnant within the first nine months of trying. However, for some women, the inability to become pregnant turns these emotions into fear and anger. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, there are 2.1 million infertile married couples in the US (10-15% of the population aged 12-50), and 9.2 million women are presently using infertility services. Globally, it is estimated that over 70 million couples are infertile.

Couples are considered infertile if they have had 12 months of unprotected intercourse without resulting in pregnancy if the woman is aged 35 or under, or six months if she is over 35. There are two types of infertility: primary, which indicates the woman has never been able to get pregnant, and secondary, in which she has had at least one other child previously, but cannot conceive later. Infertility is not exclusive to women; the man can also be the cause of a couple's inability to conceive a child.

Human birth rates declined throughout the 1980s and 1990s, which suggests reduced fertility. Challenges in getting pregnant are encountered by couples across racial classes and reasons for the increase in infertility are multidimensional. The most often cited reason is that many women are putting off having children until later in life. Contributing to this trend is the fact that birth control is easy to obtain and use, more women have jobs, women are marrying at an older age, the divorce rate remains high, and married couples are delaying pregnancy until they are more financially secure...


Login to view the full Market Insight

• Not a subscriber? Request a FREE trial
• Subscribe to Scrip
• Email to a friend

• Facebook
• digg
• del.icio.us
• furl

Comments

No Comments Yet