Infertility and Public Health
In consultation with many governmental and nongovernmental partners, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) developed the National Public Health Action Plan for the Detection, Prevention, and Management of Infertility (hereafter called the National Action Plan or the Plan). Published in 2014, this plan highlights the need to better understand and address issues at a population level that contribute to and are caused by infertility in women and men and that may affect the health of the pregnancy.
Specifically, this plan focuses on:
- Promoting healthy behaviors that can help maintain and preserve fertility.
- Promoting prevention, early detection, and treatment of medical conditions that can threaten fertility.
- Reducing exposures to environmental, occupational, infectious, and iatrogenic (condition resulting from medical activity) agents that can threaten fertility.
Because of its public health focus, these strategies also call for promoting healthy pregnancy outcomes associated with treating and managing infertility and improving the safety and efficacy of infertility treatments.
The findings and recommendations contained in this publication may serve as a platform to stimulate discussion and collaboration among Federal agencies, professional organizations, academic institutions, and those who represent consumers of health services.
Because of its public health focus, these strategies also call for promoting healthy pregnancy outcomes associated with treating and managing infertility and improving the safety and efficacy of infertility treatments.
The findings and recommendations contained in this publication may serve as a platform to stimulate discussion and collaboration among Federal agencies, professional organizations, academic institutions, and those who represent consumers of health services.
Prior to the publication of the National Action Plan, CDC scientists published a White Paper which discussed why infertility is a public health concern.
CDC’s Infertility Activities and Programs
- National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) – NCHS provides results from the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG), including special reports on the use of infertility services as well as trends in infertility and impaired fecundity. NCHS also provides a way for extramural researchers to use CDC restricted datasets through its Research Data Center.
- National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH) – NCEH continues its work in the area of biomonitoring, an important aspect of understanding the potential influence of substances on human reproduction. NCEH scientists have found many colleagues working in laboratory settings also have an interest in the hormone standardization program, specifically for monitoring testosterone levels in humans.
- National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) – NIOSH continues to assess the reproductive health effects of occupational exposures. The reproductive health program at NIOSH also studied the reproductive health of adult children (male and female) of farm families exposed to Polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs).
- National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention (NCHHSTP) – NCHHSTP continues to invest in reducing the burden of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) that may result in infertility as well as reaching key audiences to advance sexual health.
- National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (NCCDPHP) – NCCDPHP houses several programs of interest to stakeholders in the area of infertility. This includes programs in Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) surveillance and reproductive health research in the Division of Reproductive Health.