Definition
Definitions of infertility differ, with demographers tending to define infertility as childlessness in a population of women of reproductive age, while the epidemiological definition is based on "trying for" or "time to" a pregnancy, generally in a population of women exposed to a probability of conception. The time that needs to pass (during which the couple has tried to conceive) for that couple to be diagnosed with infertility differs between different jurisdictions. Existing definitions of infertility lack uniformity, rendering comparisons in prevalence between countries or over time problematic, and therefore data estimating the prevalence of infertility cited by various sources differs significantly. A couple that has tried unsuccessfully to have a child after a certain period of time (often a short period, but definitions vary) is sometimes said to be subfertile, meaning less fertile than a typical couple. Both infertility and subfertility are defined as the inability to conceive after a certain period of time (the length of which vary), so often the two terms overlap.
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