Please note: We are currently experiencing some performance issues across the site, and some pages may be slow to load. We are working on restoring normal service soon. Importing new articles from Word documents is also currently unavailable. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Huiping Zhu

and 8 more

Background: The prevalence of infertility has rarely been synthesized at the global level. Objective: To conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the community-based global prevalence of infertility. Search Strategy: PubMed, MEDLINE, Web of Science, and Science Direct were searched from inception until October 2022. Selection Criteria: Studies were included if they were published in English, had quantitative data, and reported the community-based prevalence of infertility. Data Collection and Analysis: Two authors independently extracted data. Random-effects meta-analysis was used to derive the pooled prevalence of infertility. Variations in the prevalence estimates in different subgroups. Univariate meta-regression was used to explore possible sources of heterogeneity. Main Results: The findings indicated the pooled prevalence of infertility was 12.87% (95% CI,12.41%-13.33%). The prevalences of primary infertility and secondary infertility were 7.34% and 6.01%, respectively. The overall prevalence of infertility among people was the highest in Africa (16.73%) and lowest in the North America (8.84%). Lower prevalence in cohort or prospective follow-up studies (9.75%) than in cross-sectional studies (12.93%). Women aged 35 and above had a higher prevalence of infertility (11.68%) compared to women below 35 years old (5.92%). The prevalence of infertility increased with the number of years, and increased with the degree of literature bias from low to high. Conclusions: This community-based study estimated the global prevalence of infertility to be 12.87% and suggested that an upward trend of the prevalence of infertility may persist in the future.