Kiwi couples felled

Ability to conceive lower than other similar countries, research suggests.

Researchers from the University of Otago are investigating whether New Zealand is more affected by infertility than other high-income countries.

The study probing the topic follows research in Otago and Southland that suggested the prevalence of infertility issues in New Zealand could be greater than that in other comparable countries.

Researchers were analysing general health data as well as obvious fertility risks, such as sexual health, from the Ministry of Health’s 2014/15 survey, to establish what factors could be associated.

Researcher Antoinette Righarts is working on the study, The burden of infertility in New Zealand, along with senior researcher Professor Wayne Gillett and biostatistician Andrew Gray.

Righarts led the initial studies in Otago and Southland as part of her PhD research in 2015.

“We found quite a high prevalence in infertility — one in four couples — and the research was quite consistent,” Righarts said of the study.

“Five, six years ago the statistic that people used to quote was one in six.”

It was believed that in 2014/15 highincome countries like New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom had an infertility rate of one in six.

Righarts said this was “more often than not” caused by people delaying getting pregnant.

She suspected there was a widespread lack in knowledge around fertility in New Zealand. A lot of women didn’t know at what age their fertility began to decline or what the average chances of conception per cycle was.

“People don’t openly talk about not being able to conceive. Whereas it’s very visible when someone has conceived,” she said.

“It’s significant that Ma¯ ori have just as high a burden of infertility as nonMa¯ori,” Righarts said.

Her 2015 investigation looked at the prevalence and understanding of infertility issues among women in the region as well as how many couples were using services such as IVF.

It involved interviewing Southland and Otago woman between the ages of 25 and 50, and found 25.3 per cent of women who had tried to become or had been pregnant, had experienced infertility. These results indicated Kiwis could face a greater

People are leaving family building until much later than is biologically ideal. Juanita Copeland