This article appears in the following ESHRE Monographs issue: ESHRE Special Task Force on 'Developing Countries and Infertility' [View the issue table of contents]
False perceptions and common misunderstandings surrounding the subject of infertility in developing countries
Genk Institute for Fertility Technologies, Schiepse Bos 2, 3600 Genk, Belgium
1 Correspondence address. E-mail: willem.ombelet{at}telenet.be
Chairman of the scientific committee of the Flemish Society of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Coordinator of the ESHRE Special Task Force on ‘Developing countries and infertility’
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Abstract |
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Although the consequences of the problem of childlessness are more pronounced in developing countries when compared with Western societies, local health care providers and international organizations pay little attention on this issue. The limited budgets for reproductive health care are mostly restricted to family planning and mother care. The most common misunderstanding is the ‘overpopulation-issue’. It is generally believed that the expected growth of the world population puts a real burden on the issue of infertility treatment in resource-poor countries, although recent UN reports clearly show that in most developing countries the fertility rate is dropping significantly and will fall below the threshold of 2.0 by 2050. It seems that the expected population growth in developing countries in the next decades is rather due to population ageing and not to high fertility rates. Another important issue surrounding infertility in developing countries is the so-called ‘limited resources argument’. Because the problem of childlessness is a major health problem in most developing countries, a re-arrangement of the global reproductive health care budget should be requested from local governments and international organizations taking into account the urgent need for a go-together of more successful family-planning policies and affordable simplified ART methods.
Keywords: affordable; assisted reproduction; developing countries; limited resources; population growth