Fertility knowledge and awareness in oocyte donors in Spain

Objective: To evaluate motherhood intentions and awareness of the limits of fertility as related to menstrual cycle, female age, and assisted reproductive technologies (ART) in oocyte-donation candidates in Spain.

Methods: Cross-sectional study with 229 women seeking information about oocyte donation in March-October 2013. Women were interviewed by healthcare professionals.

Results: The majority of participants (95.6%) wanted to be mothers in future and 36.7% already had children. Even so, knowledge about female reproduction was low: 48.3% failed to identify the ovulation time, 48.5% missed women's fertility peak before 25, and 27.9% overestimated the age limits for ART. University education does not improve global fertility knowledge and is associated with a later intended age for childbearing (p = 0.001), which results in a twofold risk of childlessness at age of 30 (RR = 1.95, 95% CI 1.11-3.43).

Conclusion: We conclude that fertility knowledge is insufficient but, encouragingly, nearly 30% of interviewees were proactive in seeking information from the healthcare professionals.

Practice implications: The future fertility of young people should be protected through educational interventions emphasizing the increasing phenomenon of age-related infertility at every point of contact with a women's health professional, for instance, when oocyte-donation candidates attend a fertility center for an information visit.