Partnership Trajectories Preceding Medically Assisted Reproduction

Abstract

The number of people who undergo medically assisted reproduction (MAR) to conceive has increased considerably in recent decades. However, the existing research into the demographics and ,in particular, the partnership histories of this growing subgroup is limited. Using unique data from Finnish population registers, we create longitudinal partnership histories from age 16 until the first MAR treatment for nulliparous women born in Finland in 1971-77 (n=21,129; around 10% of all women). We identify six typical partnership trajectories and use relative frequency sequence plots to investigate heterogeneity in partnership transitions within and between these groups. The majority of the women (60.7%) underwent MAR with their first partner; followed by women who underwent MAR in a second (21.5%) or a higher-order partnership (7.1%), or without a partner (10.7%). On average, women undergoing MAR were relatively young (with around half starting treatment before age 30), highly educated and had high income levels.

Note:
Funding Information: This work was supported by European Research Council agreement n. 803959 (to Alice Goisis).

Conflict of Interests: None.

Ethical Approval: Ethics Committee of Statistics Finland’s permission TK-52-1121-18.

Keywords: Medically assisted reproduction, partnership histories, sequence analysis, subfertility