Childhood social hardships and fertility: a prospective cohort study

To examine the effect of lifetime social hardships on fertility.

Using the British National Child Development Study, a longitudinal cohort study, the impact of exposure to childhood hardships on becoming pregnant, reported infertility, and time-to-pregnancy was investigated. In total, 6477 women reported on whether they had become pregnant by 41 years, and 5198 women had data on at least one pregnancy. Factor analysis was used to identify six types of childhood hardships (as reported by parent, child, social worker, or teacher); retrospective report of child abuse was also examined. Logistic regression and discrete failure-time analysis was used to adjust for potential confounders.

Never-married women were more likely to have become pregnant at some point if they had experienced more childhood hardships. Retrospectively, reported child abuse was associated with an increased likelihood of having been told that one was unable to have children. Among ever-married women, childhood hardships were associated with reduced fecundability, but the association was weakened by adjustment for adult social class.

The relationship between childhood adversity and adult fertility is complex. Future research should investigate pathways between characteristics of adversities and fertility.