[Infertility and treatment in a representative population]

The objective was to investigate lifetime prevalence of infertility, the seeking of infertility treatment and outcomes of treatment. A random sample of 3,743 women, 15 to 44 years old, were asked about infertility, their seeking of infertility treatment, diagnosis provided by their doctors and subsequent parenthood in a postal questionnaire. Response rate was 78%. Of the women who had attempted to have a child, 26.2% had experienced infertility; 4.1% af the women aged 25 to 44 years were currently primary infertile and 8.6% had involuntarily never delivered a child; 47.4% of the infertile women had sought infertility treatment. Significant predictors for seeking treatment were over nine years of school education and not having delivered a child. Of the treated infertile women 54.9% subsequently had a child. Only 30% of these reported that the successful delivery was treatment-related. The health care system should ensure that infertile couples from lower social classes are offered information on the possibility of infertility treatment.