Dupree James M
Division of Andrology, Division of Health Services Research, Department of Urology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-5330, USA.
Transl Androl Urol. 2018 Jul;7(Suppl 3):S310-S316. doi: 10.21037/tau.2018.04.25.
Infertility is a disease, and the male partner plays a role in approximately 50% of infertility cases. For most patients, infertility care does not receive insurance coverage like other diseases, leaving them to pay out of pocket for their treatments. Because of the lack of insurance coverage, evaluations and treatments are expensive for patients, with costs often approaching the median annual US income. These increased costs reduce access to care and limit the ability to diagnose the cause of infertility, treat the underlying causes, and downgrade the intensity of the intervention needed to achieve the pregnancy. This leaves much of the burden for infertility care on the female partner. In an ideal health care system, evaluations and interventions for male infertility would receive the same insurance coverage as evaluations and interventions for other diseases.
不孕症是一种疾病，男性伴侣在约50%的不孕病例中起作用。对于大多数患者来说，不孕治疗不像其他疾病那样能获得保险覆盖，这使得他们要自掏腰包支付治疗费用。由于缺乏保险覆盖，评估和治疗对患者来说费用高昂，费用常常接近美国年人均收入中位数。这些增加的费用减少了获得治疗的机会，限制了诊断不孕原因、治疗潜在病因以及降低实现妊娠所需干预强度的能力。这使得女性伴侣承担了大部分不孕治疗的负担。在理想的医疗体系中，男性不育症的评估和干预应获得与其他疾病的评估和干预相同的保险覆盖。
