Using New Data and Improved Study Designs to Examine Infertility-Service Seeking and Adverse Maternal and Perinatal Outcomes in the South-Central United States

Abstract

The inability to produce a biological child can profoundly disturb mental and social wellbeing, although it does not in itself threaten physical health. Infertility is also a problem of global proportions, affecting about 4–14 % of couples worldwide (Nachtigall 2006), with estimates of couples experiencing involuntary childlessness for a least 1 year ranging from 10 to 30 %. After a long period of neglect, infertility is finally receiving increased public and research attention. Infertility treatments can assist those desperate to become parents, but they have also fallen under scrutiny for their potential adverse maternal and infant outcomes. In this chapter, we use a new data source and novel comparison group to consider the use of such services and their salient outcomes. Our application is to Texas, the second most populous and extensive state in the U.S., and which has some of its most glaring reproductive health disparities.