When Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota appeared to claim in campaign appearances and media interviews that he and his wife used in vitro fertilization (IVF) to conceive their children, was he being dishonest? Or was he seizing on the pro-family nature of fertility treatment to frame it as a motherhood-and-apple-pie issue?
At a time when more couples and individuals are resorting to them, fertility treatments are increasingly being discussed in political campaigns. And courts and state lawmakers are introducing legislation both to protect and regulate them. Fertility treatments affect far more than the 1 in 10 women who’ve received them. According to a 2023 report from the Pew Research Center, 42 percent of U.S. adults have used fertility treatments or know someone who has (up from 38 percent in 2019). Walz and his wife used a different fertility treatment, not IVF, to have children, so it may be helpful to know something about these medical techniques and how they differ.
For couples in their prime childbearing years, getting pregnant is relatively easy. Anywhere from 40 to 60 percent of healthy couples under age 30 who are trying to get pregnant will conceive in three to four months.
For others, conceiving is not so simple. Men and women are equally prone to fertility problems—9 percent of men and 11 percent of women. Twelve to 15 percent of couples can’t conceive after one year of unprotected sex, and 10 percent still cannot after two years, according to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
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