The country appears to be suffering from rising infertility levels, with a number of regional surveys showing up to 10 percent of couples who have regular sex being unable to conceive within a year, reproduction experts have said.

No nationwide epidemiology surveys on infertility have been conducted yet, but experts have estimated that the infertility rate stood at 3 percent in the early 1980s.

For women, childbirth after 35 years of age and previous abortions were often to blame for increasing infertility, said Zhou Canquan, director of the department of obstetrics and gynecology under the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University.

Male infertility was on the rise as well, with sperm counts decreasing from 100 million per ml on average in the 1970s to 40 million per ml currently, Zhou said on Friday. He was speaking at the launch of China's first nationwide infertility survey, held by the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Chinese Medical Association and sponsored by Switzerland-based pharmaceutical giant Merck Serono.

"Individuals and the government should pay attention to the issue, as it affects families and threatens the future generation," Zhou said.

In China alone, more than 10 million Chinese couples need assisted reproductive technology (ART) procedures. More couples are also receiving other fertility treatment like hormonal therapy and a number of surgical procedures that are considered less intrusive and expensive than ART, experts said.

The World Health Organization (WHO) expects infertility and sterility to be the third most serious diseases worldwide in the 21st century, after cancer and cardiovascular diseases.

Factors such as heavy workloads, stress, environmental pollution and unhealthy lifestyles are also known to be related to a rising infertility level.

With rising awareness of the issue, an increasing number of relatively well-off Chinese who cannot have a child are turning to all kinds of infertility therapies, particularly technically demanding and expensive ARTs, said Professor He Fangfang with Peking Union Medical College Hospital.

"However, it is not a cure-all," she said.