title: The Fertility Problem Inventory: measuring perceived infertility-related stress.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To develop a reliable, valid instrument to evaluate perceived infertility-related stress.
  
  
  METHODS
  Prospective study.
  
  
  METHODS
  University-affiliated teaching hospital.
  
  
  METHODS
  Consecutively referred patients (1,153 women and 1,149 men) seen for infertility treatment.
  
  
  METHODS
  None.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants' infertility-related stress was assessed by written questionnaire using the Fertility Problem Inventory. Current levels of anxiety, depression, and marital satisfaction also were determined.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Women described greater global stress than men and higher specific stress in terms of social concerns, sexual concerns, and need for parenthood. Both men and women facing male infertility reported higher global stress and more social and sexual concerns than men and women experiencing female infertility. Social, sexual, and relationship concerns related to infertility were more effective predictors of depression and marital dissatisfaction than expressed needs for parenthood or attitudes toward child-free living.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The Fertility Problem Inventory provides a reliable measure of perceived infertility-related stress and specific information on five separate domains of patient concern. Patterns of infertility-related stress differed depending on gender, fertility history, and infertility diagnosis. Among patients receiving treatment, social, sexual, and relationship concerns appear central to current distress. Counseling interventions that target these domains appear likely to offer maximal therapeutic benefit.
authors.affiliation: London Health Sciences Centre, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: C R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Newton
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Sherrard
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Glavac
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology; D003710:Demography; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology; D016002:Discriminant Analysis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007246:Infertility / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage / Q000523:psychology; D008960:Models, Psychological; D011446:Prospective Studies; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012737:Sex Factors; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires