Fertility and infertility – Assisting couples and individuals
It is the choice of each individual and couple, within their own sense of conscience, to determine if they intend pregnancy, and if so, the size of their family unit and the timing of when to have a child or children.
If fertility problems arise, interventions can be attempted from simple fertility awareness methods to more advanced methods associated with in vitro fertilization. These interventions are scientifically innovative; and, they have revolutionized concepts of generational identity, family, and human reproductive potential.
Definitions and terminology impact many of the key issues associated with subfertility and infertility. Consistency in use of definition and a standardized methodological diagnostic tool will be required in order to define the true global burden of disease – in men and women.
Generation of WHO evidence-based guidelines and recommendations are based upon systematic reviews and GRADING of available clinical, epidemiological and operations research as well as systematic analysis of existing and recently developed evidence-based guidelines. Subsequently, clinical manuals will be developed which will recommend best practice. Despite challenges and controversies surrounding provision and access to assisted reproduction, innovative solutions are being found.
One in every four couples in developing countries had been found to be affected by infertility, when an evaluation of responses from women in Demographic and Health Surveys from 1990 was completed in collaboration with WHO in 2004. The burden remains high. A WHO study, published at the end of 2012, has shown that the overall burden of infertility in women from 190 countries has remained similar in estimated levels and trends from 1990 to 2010.
Infertility in developing countries
* UNDP/UNFPA/UNICEF/WHO/World Bank Special Programme of Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction has been widely known for many years by the abbreviation (HRP)