Awareness of Infertility: Its Role in Treatment Seeking

Lynn White, University of Nebraska at Lincoln
Julia McQuillan, University of Nebraska at Lincoln
David Johnson, Pennsylvania State University
Arthur Greil, Alfred University

This analysis uses data from a study of 563 Midwestern women to examine awareness of infertility and the role of this cognitive dimension in treatment seeking. Preliminary results suggest that only a minority of subfecund women consider themselves to have fertility problems and that this cognitive dimension is a critical intervening variable between subfecundity and treatment seeking. Awareness of fertility problems is especially low for subfecund women who are under 30 or in good health, precisely those women who would be most likely to benefit from treatment. Race and social class have relatively small effects on awareness on treatment seeking net of age and parity.