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Psychological aspects of male infertility
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1990
Year
Psychological Co-morbiditiesFertilityGlobal AttributionSuspected InfertilityReproductive HealthMental HealthPsychologySocial SciencesInvoluntary ChildlessnessMale Infertility TreatmentMale InfertilityMale Reproductive HealthPublic HealthSexual And Reproductive HealthInfertilityAndrologyMale FertilityPsychiatryDepressionPsychosocial FactorSexual BehaviorPsychosocial ResearchMale Infertility PrognosisPsychosocial IssueHuman SexualityPsychopathologySubfertile Men
The study examined how suspected infertility affects psychological functioning by comparing men who suspect infertility with those who do not. The researchers compared 107 men who suspected infertility with 30 men who did not, and analyzed how moderating variables influenced psychological outcomes in the subfertile group. Men who suspected infertility reported lower self‑esteem, higher anxiety, more somatic symptoms, and were linked to feelings of hopelessness, sexual inadequacy, and depression, while global attribution predicted psychological distress but was not tied to objective infertility measures.
The aim of this research was to study the effect of suspected infertility on psychological functioning, comparing men who suspect that they are infertile (N = 107) with men who have no such suspicion (N = 30). Infertile men had lower self-esteem, higher anxiety and showed more somatic symptoms than fertile men. The effects of moderating variables on the psychological functioning of the subfertile men were analysed. The findings were that causality of infertility, feelings of hopelessness and global attribution were related to sexual inadequacy. Depression was uniquely related to stress of infertility and global attribution. Global attribution, though predictive of psychological consequences, was not affected by the objective variables of infertility.