Geographic access to assisted reproductive technology health care in the United States: a population-based cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the geographic distribution of assisted reproductive technology (ART) clinics and the number of ART clinics within U.S. Census metropolitan areas and to estimate the number of reproductive-age women who have geographic access to ART services in the United States.

DESIGN

A population-based cross-sectional study.

SETTING

Not applicable.

PATIENT(S): None.

INTERVENTION(S): None.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Number of U.S. reproductive-age women living in areas with no ART clinic, a single ART clinic, or more than one ART clinic.

RESULT(S): There were 510 ART clinics in the United States in 2009-2013. Multiple ART clinics were present in 76 metropolitan areas (median population of 1.45 million people), where a total of 442 clinics were located. A single ART clinic was present in 68 metropolitan areas (median population of 454,000 people). Among U.S. reproductive-age women in 2010, 38.1 million (60.4% of the U.S. population) lived in an area with multiple ART clinics, 6.8 million (10.8% of the U.S. population) lived in an area with a single clinic, and 18.2 million (28.8% of the U.S. population) lived in an area (metropolitan and nonmetropolitan) with no ART clinics.

CONCLUSION(S): Nearby geographic access to ART services is limited or absent for more than 25 million reproductive-age women (39.6% of the U.S. population) in the United States. This population estimate should spur continued policy and technological progress to increase access to ART services.