States Ranked by Fertility
Resolve: The National Infertility Association, has ranked regions in the Unites States of America based on the availability of fertility aid in each state.
The rankings name Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland, and Illinois the best regions for women to be when trying to get pregnant. This was determined after experts from Resolve and EMD Serono assessed each state on how accessible support groups, fertility clinics, and fertility specialists are for women looking to get pregnant in those states.
Insurance coverage was also a factor considered when determining each states' national ranking. States like Alaska and Wyoming, which both received an "F" ranking, making them two of the three lowest ranked states in the U.S., not only do not have any fertility specialists, clinics, or support groups, but they also do not have any state laws requiring insurance coverage for fertility treatments.
In contrast, the five "A" ranked states not only have support groups and over forty fertility clinics available for women having trouble getting pregnant, but they also have state legislature that establishes insurance mandates for fertility treatment coverage.
Unfortunately, the more than 25 of the 50 states received a "C" grade or worse, indicating a bare minimum of clinics and support groups despite having a significant number of women reportedly having toruble getting pregnant. New Mexico, for instance, has only two support groups and two fertility specialists in-state despite the fact that more than 43,000 women have reported experiencing "physical difficulty in getting pregnant or carrying a pregnancy to live birth," according to the report.
Barbara Collura, president and CEO of Resolve, told reporters from the Huffington Post that this "does not bode well," for women trying to get pregnant and future birth rates.
"Infertility is a disease that affects millions of people. What this map is showing is that there are huge disparities based on where you live," Collura said.
Still, the woman said that it is Resolve's hope that the map will inspire states with poor scores to attem pt to improve their scores when with a simple change in insurance mandates alone. No state can simply produce more specialists, and clinics are hard to come by, but insurance mandate changes would be a step in the right direction, Collura explained.
The "Fertility Scorecard" was made available online by Resolve this April.
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