Sexual, marital, and social impact of a man's perceived infertility diagnosis.
BACKGROUND
Male factor infertility is a relatively common problem. This diagnosis may increase sexual, marital, and relationship strain in male partners of infertile couples.


OBJECTIVE
To measure the personal, social, sexual, and marital impacts of a male factor infertility diagnosis among men in couples evaluated for infertility.


METHODS
Cross-sectional analysis of 357 men in infertile couples from eight academic and community-based fertility clinics. Participants completed written surveys and face-to-face and telephone interviews at study enrollment. This interview queried each participant's perception of their infertility etiology to determine the primary study exposure (i.e., male factor only, male and female factors, female factor only, unknown).


METHODS
Personal Impact, Social Impact, Marital Impact, and Sexual Impact scales.


RESULTS
Among the 357 men, no male factor was reported in 47%, isolated male factor was present in 12%, combined male and female factors were present in 16%, and unexplained infertility was present in 25% of couples. Male factor infertility was independently associated with worse Sexual (mean 39 vs. 30, standard deviation [SD] 2.7, P = 0.004) and Personal (mean 37 vs. 29, SD 3.8, P = 0.04) Impact scores relative to men in couples without male factor infertility. These differences remained statistically significant after controlling for male age, partner age, race, religion, educational level, employment status, prior pregnancy, duration of infertility, and prior paternity.


CONCLUSIONS
Male partners in couples who perceive isolated male factor infertility have a lower sexual and personal quality of life compared with male partners of couples without perceived male factor infertility. Social strain is highest among couples without a clear etiology for infertility. These findings highlight the clinically significant negative sexual, personal, and social strains of a perceived infertility diagnosis for men.
Smith
James F
JF
Department of Urology, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA. smithjf@urology.ucsf.edu
Walsh
Thomas J
TJ
Shindel
Alan W
AW
Turek
Paul J
PJ
Wing
Holly
H
Pasch
Lauri
L
Katz
Patricia P
PP
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003863:Depression; D005260:Female; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D007248:Infertility, Male / Q000175:diagnosis*; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life; D019529:Sexuality; D012938:Social Perception; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires