In 1944, at the invitation of Professor and Mrs LA Harvey and Dr Margaret Jackson, a small group of biologists, clinicians and veterinarians met together at University College, Exeter, to discuss problems of mutual interest relating to fertility in man and animals. The next year the same group, with a few additions, met at the School of Agriculture in Cambridge. These two meetings were so successful that it was decided to hold regular meetings of the same kind, and so the sequence was continued in 1946 at the National Institute for Medical Research, London; in 1947 at the Nuffield Institute for Medical Research, Oxford; and in 1948 at University College, Exeter, once more.

During these early years the Family Planning Association lent its encouragement and paid for the publication of the papers read at the 1947 and 1948 meetings. By this time the group numbered about 30 people and the meetings were beginning to assume the nature of an annual conference, although the organisation was still entirely informal. In 1949 the group was invited to Edinburgh. At the close of that meeting a small committee was set up to carry on the work of the conference. As a result the Society for the Study of Fertility came into being, and the inaugural meeting was held on 16th June 1950 in the rooms of the Zoological Society of London. The constitution was ratified on 21st June 1951. Since that time the Society has grown steadily and its annual conference is recognised as providing a most valuable opportunity for the exchange of information and ideas between biologists, clinicians and veterinarians.