Awareness and attitude of medical sciences students and related factors towards fertility: A narrative review

Abstract

Fertility, a fundamental physiological process for individuals and society, can be regarded as a prerequisite for any social-economic development. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the awareness and attitude of medical sciences students and related factors towards fertility. The current narrative review study was conducted based on the search of the PubMed, Scopus, Scientific Information Database, and Magiran and Google Scholar search engine within the time frame of 2000 to 2022, according to title, abstract, and keywords, using advanced search strategies and appropriate operators. The keywords for article extraction include reproductive, child-having, fertility, and childbearing. The inclusion criteria were full-text articles in Persian and English. The exclusion criteria were lack of access to the full text of the article, review articles and qualitative studies. After searching the databases, 788 studies were found, and after applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria and removing duplicates, 27 articles were included in the study. The results showed a positive attitude of students towards parenthood and childbearing. Women were more concerned than men about having a child while studying and its impact on their job market position. Half of the women intended to become pregnant after the age of 35. Most students had little knowledge about the decrease in fertility with increasing age, but women were more aware of the effect of age on fertility than men. The importance of parenthood was higher among non-medical students, especially younger ones. In sum, based on the findings, considering the low level of student's knowledge about the appropriate age and time for fertility in the menstrual cycle and the success rate of assisted reproductive techniques, it is necessary to take a step toward increasing students' fertility awareness by holding educational workshops and creating educational websites.