Healthcare-seeking and treatment experiences among women with primary infertility: a cross-sectional community study

Background: Primary infertility affects women’s emotional, family life, and may lead seeking continuous treatment. Understanding the healthcare-seeking behaviour and treatment experiences of women help identify the barriers they face. With this intention present study was undertaken to assess socio-demographic associations, recognition of infertility, healthcare access pathways, burdens of infertility care among women with primary infertility across rural and urban communities. Methods: A community-based, cross-sectional study conducted in Dharwad district of Karnatak during 2025. Total 230 women diagnosed with primary infertility were interviewed. Data were assessed using descriptive and inferential bivariate metrics (χ2 analysis) on SPSS software version 20.0. Results: Socio-demographic characteristics revealed separate residential variations, with significantly high among advanced educated women (44.8% versus 28.9%; p=0.023) and specific salaried patterns observed among urban groups. Rural women presented higher tendencies of child marriage (29.8% versus 22.4%; p=0.001), within consanguineous unions (37.7% versus 19.8%; p=0.003). No significant rural-urban variation observed across treatment paths, frequency of facilities visits, or avoiding public facilities, with 85.7% women heavily dependent on private systems. More than half of the women (53.5%) discontinued treatment due to severe psychological distress (86.2%) and unaffordable medical costs (55.3%). Conclusions: Though socio-demographic indicators vary across rural and urban residents, the real-world treatment paths, treatment dropouts, psychological and economic distress patterns remain entirely similar. Public welfare policies must integrate low-cost reproductive treatment packages and mandated psychological care and effective counselling services within facilities.