STUDY OF DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH PRIMARY INFERTILITY IN A TERTIARY CARE CENTRE IN NORTH INDIA

Background: Fertility is a worldwide human concern and anguish over infertility is its obvious upshot.The problem of infertility confronts millions of people worldwide.In most cultures, 'being childless' is an undesired social role and infertility is an 'unexpected life transition'.However, the infertility estimates use different definitions considering different periods, which makes direct comparisons difficult between various studies.The definition, as well as the etiological causes associated with infertility, differs from region to region.It depends on social and physical characteristics that vary by culture and situation, leading to the absence of the universal definition of infertility worldwide.Clinicians define infertility as a disease of the reproductive system due to which women fail to achieve pregnancy after regular unprotected sex for twelve or more months (WHO, ICMART).In contrast, demographers define it as the inability of women in their reproductive age (15-49) years to become pregnant after exposure to pregnancy for five or more years.Objectives of the study: to determine the prevalence of primary infertility in women aged 18-49 years and to study the demographic risk factors associated with primary infertility. Materials and Methods:The data were collected by face-to-face interview with the help of predesigned and pretested questionnaire.Informed consent was taken from the study participants after explaining them the objectives of the study and ensuring the confidentiality of the data.The questionnaire was designed to obtain information regarding age, religion, socioeconomic status, education of women, duration of marriage, age at marriage, occupation status, type of family, menstruation pattern, age of menarche, first child born after marriage, and family history of