Many Chinese couples who are unable to have children lack basic knowledge about when to get treatment for infertility, while many are unaware that men also need to be checked, experts said Sunday.

These are two important factors contributed to an infertility rate that has surged in the past decade in China, in addition to environmental and social reasons, according to the experts.

Wei Minjun, a doctor from the Beijing Guoyitang Chinese Medicine Hospital who specializes in treating infertility, told the Global Times that most patients are unaware that it is easier to detect infertility in men, while determining the cause in women is much more complicated and takes longer.

"In most cases, people tend to first think about the female side when infertility occurs, spending a lot of time examining them and missing out on the best time for treatment," Wei said.

Qiao Jie, director of the gynecology and obstetrics department at Peking University Third Hospital, said many couples in China do not know when to seek treatment, adding that it was much harder for women to get pregnant after 35.

More than 40 million people suffer from infertility in China. The infertility rate has jumped from only 3 percent 20 years ago to 12 percent last year, a 2009 report by the Chinese Medicinal Association Reproductive Medicine Branch said.

Healthy couples, where the woman is under 35, who have a regular sex life without contraception for one year but fail to conceive, could be considered as having an infertility problem.