title: Impact of childlessness on life and attitudes towards continuation of medically assisted reproduction and/or adoption.
abstract: Infertility and fertility treatment have the potential to impact and disrupt a couple's overall life. In order to study the associations between the impact of childlessness on one's life, and men and women's attitudes towards fertility treatment continuation and/or adoption, we analysed data from a one-year follow-up questionnaire in a prospective, longitudinal cohort study of consecutive couples initiating fertility treatment in Denmark. The study comprised 302 couples with no children at baseline and no joint children at one-year follow-up. In total, 71.9% of women and 72.5% of men reported that they wished to continue fertility treatment, while 20.2% of women and 19.2% of men reported that they wished to pursue adoption. The attitudes of nearly 8 in 10 couples were congruent towards further fertility treatments, while nearly 7 in 10 couples were congruent in their attitudes to pursuing adoption. Significantly more men who reported a lower impact of childlessness on their daily life wished to continue fertility treatment, compared with those reporting that childlessness had a greater impact on their life. Among women, significantly more were undecided about whether or not to pursue adoption when reporting a greater impact of childlessness on social life, compared with those reporting a lower impact of their childlessness.
authors: ¹ Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen , Copenhagen , Denmark.
authors: Gitte L
authors: GL
authors: Petersen
authors: Lene T
authors: LT
authors: Blenstrup
authors: Brennan D
authors: BD
authors: Peterson
authors: Lisbeth B
authors: LB
authors: Knudsen
authors: Lone
authors: L
authors: Schmidt
mesh_terms: D000300:Adoption / Q000523:psychology*; D000328:Adult; D001290:Attitude; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007246:Infertility / Q000523:psychology*; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D043762:Reproductive Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D027724:Reproductive Techniques, Assisted / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Adoption; assisted reproductive technology; decision-making; family formation; infertility