XXXX trends among U.S. couples: 1965-1976.

@entity1 @entity249 @entity676
The proportion of US couples who were surgically sterile rose from 16% in 1965 to 28% in 1976, according to estimates derived from national fertility surveys carried out in those years. However, surgical sterilization for contraceptive reasons more than doubled--from 8% to 19%--leaving the proportions sterilized for noncontraceptive reasons virtually unchanged over the 11 years. The overall increase was greatest among white couples, couples in which the wife was aged 30-44, and those with 3 or more @entity1 . In 1976 1/2 of all couples with 3 or more @entity1 , @entity676 of those with 2, were surgically sterile. In 1976, about 2.8 million couples--some 10% of those in which wives were aged 15-44--were classified as infertile. @entity249 was higher among blacks than whites in both survey years, and the largest increase in @entity249 occurred among black couples where the wife was aged 20-24. In almost every race, age and parity group surveyed, the proportion fecund declined considerably between the 2 years, mostly as a result of concomitant increases in surgical sterility. In 1965, 73% of all US couples were capable of childbearing; by 1976, this proportion had dropped to 62%. In 1976, only 42% of couples in which the wife was aged 35-39 and 74% in which the wife was aged 25-29 were capable of conceiving a @entity1 . Moreover, only 62% of couples with 2 @entity1 were classified as fecund in 1976--a decline of 15 percentage points in 11 years.
