Women’s Preventive Services Initiative: Fertility counseling overlooked.

The 2021 Women’s Preventive Services Initiative (WPSI) Well Woman Chart outlines a framework for incorporating preventive health services recommended by the WPSI, U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), and Bright Futures based on age, health status, and risk factors. In accordance with previous guidelines for preventive care, this document fails to offer recommendations or guidelines for infertility screening and fertility counseling in the course of well-woman care. Healthcare providers may be less likely to address fertility with their patients in the absence of clear, evidence-based recommendations, potentially resulting in underinformed reproductive choices and compromised reproductive potential. Given the devastating consequences of infertility and unintended childlessness, we herein propose that infertility screening and fertility counseling should become an integral part of well-woman care, and that organizations like the WPSI put forth guidelines to assist providers in addressing fertility throughout a woman’s reproductive lifespan.
Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier Inc.