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28 March 2024

Fertility rate among Emiratis declines

Dr Hosnia Gargash

Published
By Staff

The discovery of oil has brought massive changes to the UAE and other desert Gulf countries. One of these changes was the decline in fertility rates.

As a result, the size of the Emirati family has sharply shrunk over the past few decades and could still decline as the local community continues to open up to other societies.

The findings were revealed by Dr Hosnia Gargash, owner of the Gargash Fertility Centre in Dubai, after conducting a study on the phenomenon among Emiratis.

Dr Gargash listed several likely reasons for such a problem, including social changes, health problems, delayed marriage of women and the fact that Emirati women have become more interested in “having a beautiful body.”

In comments published in the Dubai-based Arabic language daily Al Bayan, Dr Gargash said she intends to carry out a more detailed study involving this time both men and women, adding that she would take into account a recent British study, which found that infertility could also be a result of excessive use of mobile phones.

The doctor said she believes reports published in the media over the past years citing the United Nations and other organizations about infertility in the UAE were inaccurate.

“I don’t know where those reports have come from or on what basis the UN made its estimates that the infertility rate among UAE nationals fell from 5.2 per woman in 1980-1985 to 1.0 over the past five years…no studies have been conducted in this respect and this means these estimates are not accurate,” she said.

“I am now conducting the first in-depth study which will be concluded before the end of this year…it involves around 4,000 local women and is intended to find out accurate infertility rates and the reasons that led to the decline.”

She said preliminary results show that the sharp fall in the infertility rate was due to massive social changes following the discovery of oil, including opening up to foreign societies, delayed marriage of Emirati women, long work hours, health problems such as diabetes and high blood pressure, and the fact that women have become more “devoted to the aesthetic aspect of their bodies.”

“Another factor is that UAE women are now generally working mothers and more educated…many of them now recognize recommendations by the World Health Organization that the best time gap between having a baby and another is two years.”