What is a ‘fertility gap’ and why is it growing in Canada?

A growing fertility gap in Canada means more couples are intending to have kids, but the actual number of births has gone down. Kamil Karamali reports.

There has been a growing shift in the kind of clients Dr. Kim Garbedian, a reproductive endocrinologist, has been seeing at Pollin Fertility clinic in Toronto recently: younger couples in their twenties, looking to make sure their reproductive health allows them to have children later in life.

“Fertility awareness has increased a lot. We’re specifically seeing young women coming in their twenties and early thirties, who know they want to have children and desire to have them but they’re not really right there, right now,” said Dr. Garbedian in an interview with CTV News Saturday.

“But they’re coming in, whether it’s just testing or freezing their eggs.”

The desire to have children is growing in Canada, according to data released by Statistics Canada Thursday.

In 2021, 41 per cent of Canadians from all age brackets said they intend to have biological children at some point in the future. That grew to 46 per cent in the most recent data released from 2024.

The largest increase was seen in teens and young adults between the ages of 15 and 24 years. In 2021, 53 per cent said they have intentions of having biological children, which increased to 64 per cent three years later.

The Statistics Canada report also highlighted that hopefulness is tied to plans to have children, including COVID-19 likely being a factor in fewer Canadians wanting to have children in 2021, and now having a more positive outlook in 2024 after the pandemic.

At the same time, it notes that fertility rates in Canada have hit a record low at 1.25 children per woman, meeting the criteria of an “ultra-low” fertility country.

“At a national level, women have been delaying their childbearing from their 20s to their 30s,” said the report by Victoria Jordan and Maire Sinha.

“Previous research has suggested that the fertility gap between fertility intentions and achieved fertility may be widening,” the report said, adding that it may be “particularly pronounced” among younger people.

“This [ultra-low country] status generally means that a country may face population aging challenges, including strains on the labour force and pressures on the public health care and pension systems.”

Emphasis on education and support for couples

According to Dr. Garbidean, there are still two areas where they’re working on in terms of educating their clients: males and misconception.

“Male factor fertility is about 50 per cent of all cases of infertility. Men have a biological clock, but I don’t think the messaging is really out there,” said Dr. Garbidean.

“The bigger one is the misconception that fertility treatment can cure everything. We do see a lot of patients who think ‘it’s okay if I delay because I have egg-freezing to back up on’ and the reality is, when patients come and see me the success rate might be as low as five per cent or as high as 50 per cent.”

Breanna Hughes, who struggled with her own infertility challenges, has now begun a start-up called Bird&Be to help educate and support the growing number of Canadians.

“I suffered from depression, anxiety, while going through that infertility journey. I suffered from multiple miscarriages and just mass confusion and looking back, (it’s) still one of the worst times I’ve ever experienced, ” she said in an interview with CTV News Saturday from Peachland, B.C.

“There was such limited information, and it still continues to be a huge problem,” Hughes added, whose business now helps provide answers around supplements, home sperm testing and ovulation.

“In public health, there’s [sex education] in high school and then there’s this huge gap for many years where you don’t hear anything about fertility, health and reproductive health… and then all of a sudden, when you’re trying to conceive, you are kind of left to your own devices."

Registered social worker Zoe Klein, whose role helps her clients navigate through the emotional and social processes around fertility, says she noticed an uptake in the number of clients who now want to have children, but are struggling to do so.

“I definitely see more people under the age of thirty wanting children overall,” said Klein in an interview with CTV News Saturday.

“Based on what I’m seeing, [there are] drops in people having babies because they haven’t been able to get these health issues under control early enough with the appropriate providers and no one has explained to them that there are also mental health consequences and other things that are going to follow them that can absolutely be taken care of. But they need to have the right information to do so.”