Supplementary Material for: Global, regional, and national prevalence and disability-adjusted life-years for female infertility: Results from a global burden of disease study, 1990–2019

Introduction: Female infertility has a devastating impact on the physical and mental health of individuals and national fertility. However, most of the previous studies on this subject were conducted on rather small sample sizes and have certain limitations. Therefore, we aimed to determine the prevalence of female infertility in 204 countries and territories from 1990 to 2019.
Methods: We examined female infertility in terms of prevalence, age-standardized prevalence rates (ASR), and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) across different age groups in 204 countries and territories from 1990 to 2019 using data from the Global Health Data Exchange query tool.
Results: From 1990 to 2019, ASR and DALYs for female infertility increased globally. At the socio-demographic index (SDI) quintile level, middle-SDI and high-middle-SDI countries exhibited a faster increase in the ASR of female infertility. In 2019, with the highest female infertility rate recorded among those between the ages of 30–34 years and the lowest among those between the ages of 45–49 years. In 2019, high-income North America recorded the highest proportion of primary infertility, while East Asia recorded the lowest proportion.
Limitations: First, the GBD database lacks data for some countries and regions. Second, data access and quality differ across locations. Third, the causes of infertility are not comprehensive, data on Klinefelter in GBD2019 in relation to primary infertility was 0.
Conclusion: Globally, the prevalence of DALYs and age-standardized female infertility increased from 1990 to 2019.