COMMENTARY: The importance of fertility treatment in the developing world

In Western countries childlessness has a profound influence on the personal wellbeing of the women and men concerned. Recent studies have shown that in developing countries (where children are highly valued for economic and socio-cultural as well as personal reasons) childlessness often creates enormous problems for the women and men involved within the couple the extended family and the community at large. Childless women particularly suffer not only because they are generally blamed for the infertility but also because motherhood is often the only way for women to enhance their status within the family and community. In many areas childlessness is associated with marked social stigma and may lead to isolation and neglect. In many parts of the developing world (e.g. Nigeria and Laos) infertile women are despised perceived as evil beings and excluded from societal events. Childless women complain about domestic violence and disrespectful treatment by husbands and families-in-law; others are abandoned by their husbands or end up as a second wife in a polygamous marriage. (excerpt)