Abstract
BackgroundFertiQoL is a questionnaire internationally developed to measure fertility-specific quality of life. It has been validated with infertile populations in many countries and used in several studies focusing on the psychosocial consequences of infertility in Europe, Asia, and North America.MethodsOver a period of two years, 596 infertile women and men took part in the study conducted at three German fertility clinics. Psychometric properties of FertiQoL were tested by performing confirmatory factor analyses, calculating average variance extracted values, reliability and correlation coefficients. Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to determine the relations between FertiQoL subscales and both sociodemographic and medical variables. Individual and cross-partner effects were tested for.ResultsThe confirmatory factor analyses conducted on our FertiQoL data supported the original four-factor solution for both women and men but, resulted in some unsatisfactory indices. Family and friends’ support items loaded weakly on the Social subscale of FertiQoL (.27 and .34 in women, .32 and .19 in men). The Emotional and Mind/Body subscales revealed a strong intercorrelation (r = .77, p < .001 in women, r = .74, p < .001 in men). Women scored lower than men on the Emotional and Mind/Body subscales only, and they reported better fertility-specific relational QoL. In women, the perceived cause of infertility and already mothering a child related significantly to individual FertiQoL scores, while in men, age, educational level, and the duration of their wish for a child had an impact on the FertiQoL subscales (all p < .05). The men’s educational level, the women’s educational level, and the subjective perceived medical cause of fertility problems exerted cross-partner effects on QoL (all p < .05).ConclusionsOur study results represent a contribution both to research and clinical practice. The findings suggest the importance of considering the personal experience of infertility in different cultural and gender specific settings and that the strong connections between the emotional, physical, and cognitive aspects of an individual’s fertility-specific quality of life should be regarded as a more coherent system.Trial registrationDRKS: DRKS00014707. Registered 1 May 2018 (retrospectively registered).
Highlights
Infertility is medically defined as the inability to conceive within a defined period (1–2 years) by persons who have regular heterosexual intercourse in the absence of contraception [1]
As an indicator of convergent validity, the average variances extracted explained by Emotional and Mind/Body subscales were near the critical threshold of
The problematic loading of family support in connection with fertility problems can be inferred from the fact that the greatest social support for involuntary childless persons is generally provided by the partner, not by the family [32, 33], and the amount of perceived support from significant others depends on the kind of relationship obtaining in each case, which covers a spectrum ranging from close to distant
Summary
Infertility is medically defined as the inability to conceive within a defined period (1–2 years) by persons who have regular heterosexual intercourse in the absence of contraception [1]. Depending on the criteria underlying the definition and the methodology employed in the statistical analysis, about 48.5–74.4 million women are affected by fertility problems worldwide [2, 3]. Half of these infertile individuals seek medical help for their fertility intentions [3]. FertiQoL is a questionnaire internationally developed to measure fertility-specific quality of life. It has been validated with infertile populations in many countries and used in several studies focusing on the psychosocial consequences of infertility in Europe, Asia, and North America
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