An article by a leading Indian news website claimed that the World Health Organisation (WHO) is all set to classify a person as disabled if they are unable to find a suitable sexual partner. But WHO has clarified that it has no plans to change the definition of infertility.

On June 3rd, 2019, an article published in the leading news website claimed that the World Health Organization (WHO) is planning to redefine infertility to include people who are unable to find a partner. The headline of the article read: No sexual partner? WHO to classify you as disabled now say reports.”

The website has 10 million Facebook followers and 5.3 million Twitter followers. This story was widely shared on social media, 192 times to be exact on Facebook.

Further, the same story was picked up by a Philippines based news website crediting the Indian website and was shared 5500 times by Facebook users.

This article doesn’t mention any year or specific name of the report which questions the authenticity of the report. Similar reports about infertility have been in circulation since 2016. This conclusion was perhaps based on the idea that the WHO has in the past considered infertility to be a form of disability.

When contacted, WHO communications officer Tarik Jasarevic directed us to the 2016 statement which read that the WHO has no current plans to make any changes to the definition of infertility.

“WHO has not changed its use of this definition. It is important to note that this definition provides a clinical description of infertility. It does not make any recommendations about the provision of fertility care services,” read the statement.

It further read, “WHO is not planning to make any changes to the definition of infertility. WHO is currently developing guidelines on the diagnosis and management of infertility. These guidelines will not revise the definition of infertility.”

The WHO continues to define infertility as “a disease of the reproductive system defined by the failure to achieve a clinical pregnancy after 12 months or more of regular unprotected sexual intercourse”.

We found that the WHO has clarified this in past and has also tweeted the statement related to changes to the definition of infertility. The WHO continues to define infertility as “a disease of the reproductive system defined by the failure to achieve a clinical pregnancy after 12 months or more of regular unprotected sexual intercourse”.

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However, it seems the clarification from the WHO attracted little attention.

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