Prevalence of Primary and Secondary Infertility in Four Selected Provinces in Iran, 2010-2011

Infertility is one of the common problems of human societies. According to the outcome of some studies, the prevalence of infertility due to various factors have been changing in recent years.The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of various rates of infertility and provide necessary information for planning in the future.

In this community-based descriptive study, 2400 women aged 18-49 years were selected by using randomized cluster sampling method from four provinces of Iran as a representative of the couple's population living there. Data were collected by using a valid questionnaire made by the researchers. Gathered data were analyzed by the means of SPSS statistical software version 17, descriptive statistics concepts, analytical statistical methods including chi-square and spearman tests. P value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

In this study, 72 subjects (3.2%) of the population was current primary infertile and 26.1% of the population (599 persons) had experienced lifetime primary infertility. Also, 1.7% of subjects despite having at least one child were secondary infertile. Estimation of prevalence of current primary infertility in Isfahan, Hormozgan, Golestan and Kermanshah provinces was respectively 2.3%, 6.8%, 3.4% and 2.2%.

Based on the definition of one year infertility, the estimated prevalence of current primary infertility in investigated population (except in Isfahan) was significantly higher in this study than other studies over the past years. As well, other various rates of infertility were severely influenced by current age and marital age.