Overview
- WHO estimates that infertility affects about 1 in 6 people of reproductive age over their lifetimes.
- The new guideline sets out 40 recommendations to strengthen prevention, diagnosis and treatment while integrating fertility care into national strategies, services and financing.
- It promotes stepped, evidence-based clinical pathways, from lifestyle risk reduction and male assessment to options such as intrauterine insemination or IVF.
- WHO underscores severe affordability gaps, noting that a single IVF cycle can cost up to twice the average annual household income in some settings.
- The guidance calls for ongoing psychosocial support and rights-based, gender-equal care, and it flags evidence gaps with plans for future editions on fertility preservation and third-party reproduction.