Public perception on infertility and its treatment: an international survey

The first large survey on the public perception of infertility and its treatment was conducted in six European countries, the USA and Australia. A representative sample of 8194 adults was polled, using standard validated methodology. The results obtained highlighted the following major aspects: (i) infertility is perceived as a disease by less than half of the people surveyed (38%), in contrast to the accepted medical opinion; (ii) awareness about the definition and incidence of infertility is relatively low, despite the fact that half of the people polled claimed to know someone affected by infertility; (iii) close to 90% of the adults surveyed knew about in-vitro fertilization (IVF), but less than one-quarter of them knew about the chances of success of this assisted reproductive technology; and (iv) when confronted with the knowledge that the cost of three IVF cycles is roughly equivalent to the cost of a hip replacement (a commonly reimbursed procedure), a large majority (70%) of the individuals interviewed agreed that IVF should be reimbursable.