Investigating the Role of Weathering in Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Assisted Reproductive Technology Outcomes

• In Event: 1232 - Fertility and Technology

Abstract

White women have the highest live birth rates among patients using assisted reproductive technologies (ART), such as in-vitro fertilization. To date, however, explanations for the racial and ethnic disparities in ART outcomes have centered on differential utilization and access or differences in the prevalence of obesity and other fertility-impacting illnesses. The present paper reframes these racial disparities in terms of weathering and uses the National Survey of Family Growth and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey to explore whether there is within-group health heterogeneity among women seeking infertility treatment, generally, or ART, specifically, consistent with the Weathering Hypothesis. The preliminary findings provide limited evidence for the hypothesis that Black women seeking infertility treatment or ART have more deleterious health profiles net of other covariates than White women. The paper concludes with a discussion of limitations and implications of these results.

Author

• Katherine Tierney, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill