Epidemiology of infertility and characteristics of infertile couples requesting assisted reproduction in a low-resource setting in Africa, Sudan

BACKGROUND: Infertility is a big health problem worldwide. Few data exist on infertility in Sudan. METHODS: A descriptive study was conducted to assess the pattern and the causes of infertility among couples (800) attending the University of Khartoum Fertility Centre, Saad Abualila Teaching Hospital in Khartoum, Sudan. The data on the socio-demographic characteristics of the patients, the type of infertility whether primary or secondary and the causes of infertility were extracted from the medical files retrospectively. RESULTS: The mean (SD) age of the females was 32.4 (7.4) years while that of the males was 37.5 (7.2) years. The mean (SD) duration of infertility was 4.9(3.9) years. Five hundred and fifty one (68.9%) couples had primary infertility, while the remainder 249(31.1%) had secondary infertility. Two hundred and eighty four (35.5%) couples had male infertility, 342(42.8%) couples had female infertility. One hundred and forty seven (18.4%) couples had combined male and female infertility and in 27 (3.4%) couples the cause of infertility was not identified. Factors identified in the female infertility (342) were; anovulation (178, 52.05%), tubal factor (142, 41.52%), uterine factor (7, 2.05%) and other/combined (7, 2.05%). Azoospermia (75, 26.41%), oligozoospermia (45, 15.85%), asthenozoospermia (51, 17.96%), teratospermia (15, 5.28%) and mixed pathology (101, 35.56%) were the causes of the male infertility (n = 284). Female factors of infertility were observed more frequently among couples with secondary infertility compared with primary infertility (143/551(57.4) vs. 199/249(36.1), P < 0.001. CONCLUSION: The current study showed a high rate of primary infertility and female factor predominates compared with male factors. Future research direction should focus on the reasons why majority of clients seek this service very late.