Why do infertile males use psychological couple counselling?
The purpose of the present study was to identify characteristics of male patients that could be relevant for the uptake of psychological couple counselling for infertility. Therefore, 94 male patients who participated in psychological couple counselling were compared to 134 unselected infertility patients who attended an andrological clinic. Counselling users showed higher scores for depression and anxiety as well as a higher number of impaired sperm parameters. Multivariate analysis revealed that beyond the level of depression the number of impaired sperm parameters delivered additional information about the probability of a patient using counselling. For interpretation of these results the former research was broadly reviewed. It is suggested that an increased level of distress, the feeling of being responsible for infertility and few marital difficulties are relevant for the usage of couple counselling by male infertility patients. Practical consequences are discussed.
Pook
M
M
Department of Psychology, Philipps University of Marburg, Gutenbergstrasse 18, 35032 Marburg, Germany. pook@mailer.uni-marburg.de
Röhrle
B
B
Tuschen-Caffier
B
B
Krause
W
W
D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D019546:Couples Therapy; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D007248:Infertility, Male / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D015999:Multivariate Analysis