Recognizing all individuals’ fertility rights
The WHO infertility fact sheet makes strong statements, recognizing that individuals and couples have the right to decide the number, timing, and spacing of their children. Addressing infertility is therefore an important part of realizing the right of individuals and couples to found a family. This includes heterosexual couples, same-sex partners, older persons, individuals not in sexual relationships who might require infertility management and fertility care services, and notably marginalized populations.
Addressing infertility also can help mitigate gender inequality, which has significant negative social impacts on the lives of infertile individuals, especially women. Fertility education is important to reduce the fear of infertility and contraception use in those wanting pregnancy in the future.
In most countries the biggest challenges are availability, access, and quality of interventions to address infertility. This includes the United States, where only 1 in 4 individuals receive the fertility care they need. Lack of prioritization, ineffective public health strategies, inadequate funding, and costs are barriers. Health policies need to recognize that infertility is a disease that often can be prevented, thereby reducing future costs. Comprehensive awareness and education programs, laws and policies that regulate and ensure access and the human rights of all involved, are essential.
Advocacy efforts
To address infertility and fertility care, the WHO is committed to:
- collaborate with partners on epidemiologic and etiologic research
- facilitate policy dialogue globally to frame infertility within a legal and policy framework
- support generation of data on the burden of infertility
- develop guidelines
- produce other documents of standards
- collaborate with all stakeholders to strengthen political commitment and health system capacity, and
- provide country-level technical support to develop or strengthen policies and services.
For your practice, this means that infertility is recognized as a disease that should receive its appropriate share of health care resources. Infertility and fertility care are the right of every individual according to their desires to found a family. Besides providing the best care you can to all your patients, including referring them when necessary, all health care clinicians should advocate on behalf of their patients to payors, policy makers, and the public the need to provide equitable laws, resources, and funding for infertility and fertility care.
WHAT THIS EVIDENCE MEANS FOR PRACTICE
Every person has the right to infertility and fertility care as endorsed by the recent WHO infertility fact sheet. To address this high-burden disease, all women’s health care clinicians should be aware of, equitably diagnose and treat, refer as necessary, and advocate for infertile individuals.
Continue to: Lessons learned in reducing multiple pregnancy rates in infertility treatment...