With birth rates plummeting in many countries, ours included, the World Health Organization now says 1 in 6 adults worldwide will be affected by infertility.
This works out to be 17.5% of the global population.
The WHO declared things so bad that it is calling for an “urgent need to increase access to affordable, high-quality fertility care,” according to a press release.
“The report reveals an important truth – infertility does not discriminate,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general at WHO. “The sheer proportion of people affected show the need to widen access to fertility care and ensure this issue is no longer sidelined in health research and policy, so that safe, effective, and affordable ways to attain parenthood are available for those who seek it.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention previously suggested that 1 in 5 women in the United States, ages 15 to 49 years old with no prior births, are unable to get pregnant after one year of trying, which is considered infertility.