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Racial disparities in fertility knowledge, awareness examined
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Two new studies showing racial disparities in knowledge about fertility were presented at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine annual meeting in Honolulu.
Jacqueline C. Yano, MD, MA, third-year obstetrics/gynecology resident at Mount Sinai Beth Israel, spoke during a conference call about two studies that analyzed responses to a cross-sectional survey of 1,000 women of reproductive age to determine if racial disparities exist in fertility awareness. The survey was designed by researchers at Yale University and administered by a marketing company in March 2013.
An online survey was sent to women respondents who were aged 18 to 40 years and representative of the US population in terms of age and ethnic diversity, including white (73%), Hispanic (12.5%), black (8%), Asian (4.5%), and other (2%) race.
One study examined the subjective burden perceived by women about difficulties in becoming pregnant. Topics included taboos about discussing attempts to become pregnant, feelings about being concerned about one’s ability to get pregnant and stress related to planned conception.
“A disproportionally high subjective burden was expressed by Asian women compared to women of other races,” Yano said.
More Asian women (58.1%) said they would be concerned about their ability to get pregnant if they were attempting to do so compared with 37.4% of white respondents, 44.4% of Hispanic women, 37.3% of black women and 52.6% of women identified as another race.
More than 34% of Asian women said it was socially taboo and hard to talk about getting pregnant compared with 14.6% of whites, 20% of Hispanics and 21.8% of blacks.
On the survey topic, “Trying to get pregnant is a private issue and hard to talk about,” 59.1% of Asian women responded affirmatively compared with 39.5% of white women, 34.4% of Hispanic women and 35.9% of black women.
In another study, Yano and a colleague examined racial and demographic differences in knowledge about fertility and risk factors for infertility.
Population demographics varied by race, according to Yano, who said that Asian women reported the greatest levels of education, employment status and income compared with other groups.
“In regard to awareness related to fertility and infertility, the level of awareness was unrelated to the level of education across the various races,” Yano said. “Even though Asian women had the highest levels of income and employment status, they were comparable to other races in terms of their knowledge and awareness.”
Yano said there were “significant” racial differences in knowledge about risk factors for infertility, such as smoking, with Hispanics and Asians least aware. Blacks and other race were least aware of advancing age as a risk factor for infertility. While Asians showed lower awareness of the potential for sexually transmitted diseases to reduce fertility, they were the most aware that painful menses were a potential risk factor.
The misperception that ovaries continue to produce eggs was high, according to Yano. She said 50% of the women across all races held the misperception, with Hispanics most likely (73%) to hold the belief. Only 9% of respondents were aware of the concept of a fertile window, with Asians (16%) most likely to identify the window correctly and blacks (6%) least likely.
Disclosure: See the abstracts published in the ASRM 2014 program guide for a full list of relevant financial disclosures.