Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Jul;29(7):2081-2083.
doi: 10.1007/s43032-022-00956-5. Epub 2022 Apr 28.

Racial and Ethnic Variation in Genetic Susceptibility: Are Disparities in Infertility Prevalence and Outcomes more than Black and White?

Jerrine R Morris  1 , Torie Comeaux Plowden  2 , Lisa J Green  3   4 , Digna R Velez Edwards  5   6 , Tia Jackson-Bey  7   8
Affiliations

Racial and Ethnic Variation in Genetic Susceptibility: Are Disparities in Infertility Prevalence and Outcomes more than Black and White?

Jerrine R Morris et al. Reprod Sci. 2022 Jul.

Abstract

Race, as a social construct without a clear genetic underpinning, is frequently referenced in medicine as predictor of multiple diseases including that of infertility. The authors will discuss how systematic racism can have downstream consequences ranging from overt physician bias to use of medical algorithms that may potentiate the same disparities they attempt to narrow. Then, the authors explore the utility and pragmatic use of genetic ancestry to estimate disease prevalence, instead of racial categories. Finally, the authors explore how health inequities, rooted in systematic racism, can influence disease heritability effectively advocating for research to disentangle the contributions of racism to genetic susceptibility in infertility.

Keywords: Genetic ancestry; Health disparities; Heritability; Infertility.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

References

    1. Association AM. Organizational strategic plan to embed racial justice and advance health equity. 2020.
    1. Hoffman K, Trawalter S, Axt JR, Oliver N. Racial bias in pain assessment and treatment recommendations, and false beliefs about biological differences between blacks and whites. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2016;113(16):4296–4301. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1516047113. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bougie O, Yap Ma I, Sikora L, Flaxman T, Singh S. Influence of race/ethnicity on prevalence and presentation of endometriosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BJOG, 2019; 126:1104–1115. - PubMed
    1. Vyas D, Eisenstein LG, Jones DS. Hidden in plain sight — reconsidering the use of race correction in clinical algorithms. N Engl J Med. 2020;383:874–882. doi: 10.1056/NEJMms2004740. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kaseniit K, Haque IS, Goldberg JD, Shulman LP, Muzzey D. Genetic ancestry analysis on >93,000 individuals undergoing expanded carrier screening reveals limitations of ethnicity-based medical guidelines. Genet Med. 2020;22(10):1694–1702. doi: 10.1038/s41436-020-0869-3. - DOI - PMC - PubMed