Laboratory

Fertility and Well-Being

At a Glance Projects Publications Team

Project

The Influence of Health and Cognition on Fertility

Kieron Barclay, Susie Lee, Natalie Nitsche; in Collaboration with Martin Kolk (Stockholm University, Sweden), Eugene Gardner, Matthew Hurles (both: University of Cambridge, United Kingdom)

Detailed Description

This project examines how physical health, mental health, reproductive health, and related psychosocial dimensions are associated with fertility outcomes and family processes. Using large-scale population register and survey data, the research investigates how health conditions shape childlessness, parity progression, partnership trajectories, and reproductive outcomes.

Recent work based on Finnish register data demonstrates that depression is associated with elevated levels of childlessness for both women and men, with partnership status and partner’s mental health playing important mediating roles. This highlights the importance of considering couple-level dynamics when seeking to understand how mental health influences fertility behavior.

Another strand focuses on medically assisted reproduction and maternal health. Evidence from linked population data shows that more invasive fertility treatments are associated with higher maternal morbidity, partly driven by multifetal gestation and obstetric complications. These findings contribute to our understanding of the potential health consequences of reproductive medical innovation.

Publications

Hiilamo, A.; Sedovic , M.; Kailaheimo-Björkqvist, S.; Villadsen , A.; Ploubidis, G.B.; Myrskylä, M.:

Patterns of childhood internalising and externalising symptoms and lifetime fertility in the 1958 and 1970 British birth cohorts

MPIDR Working Paper WP-2026-008. (2026)    

Kailaheimo-Björkqvist, S.; Nisén, J.; Metsä-Simola, N.; Martikainen, P.; Myrskylä, M.:

Linking mental health disorders to childlessness: the roles of disorder type and partnership

Journal of Family Research 38, 130–147. (2026)    

Di Nallo, A.:

Couples' subjective well-being around live birth and pregnancy loss

Population Development Review 51:3, 1141–1169. (2025)    

Pelikh, A.; Smith, K. R.; Myrskylä, M.; Debbink, M. P.; Goisis, A.:

Maternal morbidity and medically assisted reproduction treatment types

Obstetrics & Gynecology 145:2, 220–230. (2025)    

Rowold, C.; Gädecke, M.; Van Winkle, Z.:

Rethinking children’s family complexity: a multi-conceptual approach with dynamic sequence analysis and fixed effects models

MPIDR Working Paper WP-2025-022. (2025)    

Kailaheimo-Lönnqvist, S.; Moustgaard, H.; Martikainen, P.; Myrskylä, M.:

Own depression, partner's depression, and childlessness: a nationwide register-based study

Social Science and Medicine 361:117356, 1–12. (2024)    

Väisänen, H.; Batyra, E.:

Birth intention status and infant mortality: fixed-effects analysis of 60 countries

Population and Development Review 50:4, 1149–1180. (2024)    

Lee, D. S.; Nitsche, N.; Barclay, K. J.:

Body mass index in early adulthood and transition to first birth: racial/ethnic and sex differences in the United States NLSY79 cohort

Population Studies 77:2, 241–261. (2023)    

Kolk, M.; Barclay, K. J.:

Do income and marriage mediate the relationship between cognitive ability and fertility? Data from Swedish taxation and conscriptions registers for men born 1951-1967

Intelligence 84:101514, 1–11. (2021)    

Barclay, K. J.; Kolk, M.:

The influence of health in early adulthood on male fertility

Population and Development Review 46:4, 757–785. (2020)    

Gardner, E. J.; Neville, M. D. C.; Samocha, K. E.; Barclay, K. J.; Kolk, M.; Niemi, M. E. K.; Kirov, G.; Martin, H. C.; Hurles, M. E.:

Sex-biased reduction in reproductive success drives selective constraint on human genes

bioRxiv preprints. unpublished. (2020)    

Kolk, M.; Barclay, K. J.:

Do income and marriage mediate the relationship between cognitive ability and fertility? Data from Swedish taxation and conscriptions registers for men born 1951-1967

MPIDR Working Paper WP-2020-010. (2020)    

Barclay, K. J.; Kolk, M.:

The influence of health in early adulthood on male fertility

MPIDR Working Paper WP-2019-020. (2019)    

Kolk, M.; Barclay, K. J.:

Cognitive ability and fertility amongst Swedish men: evidence from 18 cohorts of military conscription

MPIDR Working Paper WP-2017-020. (2017)