PURPOSE: We test the hypothesis that as women have an increasing number of pregnancy scares, they are more likely to believe they are infertile. We also document the reasons why women had their first pregnancy scare and how women resolved that pregnancy scare.
METHODS: We study a national sample of 242 women aged 18-44 recruited using Amazon Mechanical Turk. Using logistic regression, we predict perceived infertility using the number of past pregnancy scares, controlling for sociodemographic factors and confounding variables.
RESULTS: In our sample, 54% of women had ever experienced a pregnancy scare and 55% reported being at least slightly suspicious that they are infertile. As women’s numbers of scares increased, they were significantly (p<0.001) less likely to suspect they were infertile.
CONCLUSIONS: Pregnancy scares are a common event in women’s lives that are associated with significantly reduced odds of perceived infertility, which is a risk factor for unplanned pregnancies.
