Infertility: From a personal to a public health problem

The inability to conceive a child is most often viewed as a private matter, but public health perspectives and skills can Contribute greatly to our kn owledge about infertility, and the development of effective and rational pu blic policy for prevention, access to health care, and regulation of new te chnologies. We offer a primer of public health aspects of infertility in an effort to encourage the broad. spectrum of public health professionals to become more knowledgeable about these topics and join in the national debat e about preventive strategies; cost-benefit assessment, resource allocation , and ethics.