Infertility is often defined as not being able to get pregnant after trying for one year. Of the approximately 60 million women of reproductive age in 1995, about 1.2 million, or 2%, had an infertility-related medical appointment within the previous year, and 15% had an infertility-related medical visit at some point in the past. (Infertility services include medical tests to diagnose infertility, medical advice and treatments to help a woman become pregnant, and services other than routine prenatal care to prevent miscarriage.) Additionally, 7% of married couples in which the woman was of reproductive age (2.1 million couples) reported that they had not used contraception for 12 months and the woman had not become pregnant (1995 National Survey of Family Growth). Thus, for many people who want to start a family, the dream of having a child is not easily realized. Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) has been used in the United States since 1981 to help women become pregnant, most commonly through the transfer of fertilized human eggs into a woman’s uterus. However, deciding whether to undergo this expensive and time-consuming treatment can be difficult.
Although various definitions have been used for ART, the definition used by CDC is based on the 1992 Fertility Clinic Success Rate and Certification Act that requires CDC to publish the annual ART success rates report. According to this definition, ART includes all fertility treatments in which both eggs and sperm are handled. In general, ART procedures involve surgically removing eggs from a woman’s ovaries, combining them with sperm in the laboratory, and returning them to the woman’s body or donating them to another woman. They do NOT include treatments in which only sperm are handled (i.e., intrauterine—or artificial—insemination) or procedures in which a woman takes medicine only to stimulate egg production without the intention of having eggs retrieved.
