The mainland's infertility rate is rising because of changing lifestyles, raising concern among medical experts, Xinhua reported yesterday.
In some regions, between 7 and 10 per cent of married couples were infertile, the chairman of the Chinese Medical Association's reproductive medicine branch, Professor Wang Yifei, was quoted as saying.
He made the comments during the mainland's first forum on reproductive medicine, which was held in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, on the weekend. About 1,000 researchers and doctors attended the gathering.
Professor Wang, who is also a member of Shanghai's Jiaotong University, said the infertility rate of the Chinese population was approaching that of western countries.
Nevertheless, China had yet to carry out a nationwide survey of infertility, he said.
Among women, experts said marrying at a later age was one cause of rising infertility, as many career women were choosing to delay getting married and having children.
'Inappropriate' methods of birth control, such as multiple abortions, could also cause problems with fertility, experts said.