Fertility

The term fertility refers to capacity of an individual to give birth to life. The fertility rate is nothing but the number of child that a couple poses in a population. The term fertility is different from fecundity, which is referred as potential of reproduction. This is induced by number of factors such as fertilization, gamete production and carrying pregnancy. Infertility refers to deficient fertility. Both men and women have same hormonal cycles where only women can attain pregnancy and men exist as so virile. The menstrual cycle of female is twenty eight days long and male cycle is not so and is variable. Men will ejaculate sperm at any time. Age plays a significant role for fertility of both male and female.

The fertility of human is dependent on many factors such as

• sexual behavior
• instinct
• timing
• economics
• emotions
• way of life
• endocrinology
• nutrition
• culture

Demography of fertility

The fertility in demographic concept actually refers to production of offspring and it does not mean about the physical capacity of an individual to produce offspring as defined by fecundity. The fertility can be measured however fecundity cannot be measured. The fertility rate is measure in different ways by demographers. The broad classifications of fertility rate measures are as follows. Both below mention measures are widely used by demographers.

• Period measure: It refers cross section of a population produced in one single year.
  • Crude birth rate (CBR)
  • General fertility rate (GFR)
  • Child woman rate (CWR)
  • Coale’s index of fertility
• Cohort measure: It refers to population produced during decades by the same individual who is assessed for periodic measure.
  • Age specific fertility rate (ASFR)
  • Total fertility rate (TFR)
  • Gross reproduction rate (GRR)
  • Net reproduction rate (NRR)

Questions:

• What is fertility?
• What is infertility?
• What is fecundity?