Study on the Status of Gamete Freezing and Reproductive Health of Korean Adults Aged 19–49 Years

TL;DR

This study examines gamete freezing and reproductive health among Korean adults aged 19–49 using national survey data.

Contribution

It provides the first national-level data on gamete freezing prevalence and associated factors in South Korea.

Findings

Only 0.7% of 14,040 participants had frozen their gametes, with women making up 61.4% of this group.

Most gamete-freezing participants were highly educated, urban-dwelling, and married, with a high infertility perception among women.

29.7% of gamete-freezing participants reported genital infections, highlighting potential reproductive health concerns.

Abstract

Background: With advances in biomedical technology and social changes, such as a high rate of late marriages, the interest in gamete freezing is increasing. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the status of gamete freezing and reproductive health of adult Koreans aged 19–49 years using data from the 2021 National Family and Fertility survey. Method: The SPSS program was used to analyze the data using descriptive statistics, Fisher’s Exact p-value, and the t-test. Results: Of the 14,040 study subjects, 101 (0.7%) had frozen their gametes. The average age of this group was 38.1 years, 61.4% were women and 38.6% were men. In addition, 83.2% of the group had a university degree or higher, 85.1% lived in urban areas, 94.1% were married, and 66.3% were economically active. The participant-reported incidence of genital infections in this group was 29.7%. The obstetric history revealed that 91.9% of the women considered themselves infertile. Conclusions: The results of this study can be used as basic data for developing educational programs to preserve fertility or developing childbirth-related policies in the future.

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