The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued first-ever global guidelines on the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of infertility.
Infertility is a disease of the female and male reproductive system in which a pregnancy does not occur following a year or over of naturally trying conceive.
It is caused by multiple explainable or unexplainable male and female factors.
WHO has called on countries to make fertility care safer, and more affordable. As per the recent data, up to 1 in 6 people of reproductive age are suffering from it.
Notably, some factors are treatable, yet access to care remains limited and often financially difficult.
In some regions, infertility treatments are extremely heavy on pockets and come with a lot of financial hardships, such as a single in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycle that may wreak havoc on their finances.
“Millions face this journey alone — priced out of care, pushed toward cheaper but unproven treatments, or forced to choose between their hopes of having children and their financial security. We encourage more countries to adapt this guideline, giving more people the possibility to access affordable, respectful, and science-based care,” Dr. Tedros added.
To address these challenges, Tedros urged governments to adopt scientific, and affordable models.
The recent guideline provides 40 recommendations, which are particularly designed to strengthen clinical management, prevention, and treatment.
It underscored the significance of teaching individuals early regarding fertility, and spread awareness about how several factors can significantly affect it and the need to follow healthy habits like eating well.
Furthermore, the WHO underscores significant risk factors like untreated sexually transmitted infections.
