Nowadays, with celebrities opening up about their experiences conceiving, and assisted reproductive technology advancements on the rise, people are more aware of the realities and possibilities surrounding fertility than ever before.

But there are still gaps in our understanding of what "fertility" really means, and how the process of trying to get pregnant truly impacts people’s lives. This is one of the reasons we launched Fertility Spectrum, to paint a clearer picture of the various experiences people face on their paths to parenthood. 

To better understand these journeys, we’ve teamed up with FertilityIQ, a company that provides crowd-sourced data about fertility clinics and doctors. We surveyed 270 members of its community in an effort to gain greater insight into what people know about their reproductive health, what they wish knew, and what their fertility stories have looked like.

Perhaps the most poignant takeaway was that the majority of people surveyed said they didn’t feel that they received adequate information from their doctors. Being diagnosed (or not properly diagnosed) with conditions that can influence fertility, such as polycystic ovarian syndrome or endometriosis, only compounded their confusion. Many women said that they felt they had to do their own research to figure out what could be keeping them from getting pregnant.

Age was another area where women felt kept in the dark. Some survey participants said that they wished their doctors would’ve been upfront about how age can affect fertility, while others said they were dismissed by doctors for being “too young” to worry about their fertility yet. About 80% of respondents said they had started thinking about their fertility around age 28 to 32, which was the same age range that people said they began trying to get pregnant. 

Women also opened up about their biggest fears and anxieties about fertility, and shared how it affects their relationship with their partners and peers.