title: Infertility treatment: when is it time to give up? An Internet-based survey.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Many factors have been suggested that influence a couple's decision to stop infertility treatment despite not achieving their goal of having a baby. This Internet-based questionnaire study aims to shed light on these reasons by surveying patients who have received treatment from a variety of different centres.
  
  
  METHODS
  Registered users of an independent infertility website were invited to participate in the survey by filling in a structured questionnaire.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Eighty users completed the questionnaire. Fifty-eight percent of patients received treatment in just one centre. Seventy-eight percent of the patients paid for the treatment themselves. Forty-two percent of couples intended to have only one treatment cycle and 60% of couples reported undergoing more cycles than they had originally intended. Ten percent of patients regretted not stopping their treatment earlier. The most common reasons why patients opted against further treatment cycles were financial constraints (46%), emotional burden (35%), poor response to treatment (29%) and poor egg quality (19%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The decision to stop treatment despite poor outcomes is a difficult one and unique to the couple. The findings of this study are consistent with the widely held belief that in vitro fertilization is a stressful, expensive process, given that almost all women cited these as reasons to stop treatment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Cambridge University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridge, UK. diana.marcus@nhs.net
authors.forename: Diana
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Marcus
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Marcus
authors.forename: Antoinette
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: Samuel
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Marcus
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007247:Infertility, Female / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D008875:Middle Aged; D027724:Reproductive Techniques, Assisted / Q000191:economics / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D028761:Withholding Treatment / Q000191:economics