Urgent call to integrate Infertility in all policies at the Nairobi Summit on ICPD +25

The ICPD Plan of Action stated that reproductive health should enhance the rights of individuals, which included the “right to decide freely and responsibly” the number and spacing of one’s children. Despite progress towards achieving comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights for all, data from across the world show that approximately 180 million couples worldwide suffer from infertility. However, Infertility still remains an invisible and highly tabooed phenomenon and is rarely discussed.
We write to express our collective concerns regarding the draft commitment which will be adopted by the Governments at Nairobi.

Universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights is one of the cornerstones of population and development programmes, and are affirmed in SDGs 3, 7 and 5 and 6, which can be related to health inequity and gender inequality.. It is important to include infertility as an important reproductive health concern in the local and global-policy initiatives. Addressing infertility and involuntary childlessness include, combating stigma and discrimination; prevention of infertility and access to safe and affordable, quality diagnosis, treatment and management including psycho-social support ( Starrs, A. M. et. al, (2018). Accelerate progress—sexual and reproductive health and rights for all: report of the Guttmacher–Lancet Commission. The Lancet).

To fulfill people's sexual and reproductive health and rights, countries should commit to guarantee access to (in)fertility information and services. This commitment can be formulated as:

“Zero unmet need for (in)fertility related counselling and services, including prevention, diagnosis/examination, treatment, and support”.

We urge governments, UN agencies and partners to reflect on the ICPD+25 commitments and include infertility as an SRHR and public health concern.

This was developed by participants at the Share-Net Co Creation Conference 8-10 October, 2019, Amsterdam.

Mode of engagement:

• Policy and guidance
  Globally there is a urgent need to harmonize SRHR & UHC in terms of gender equality and equitable access to quality services. This implies that the whole range of SRHR services from contraception to infertility care are universal available.