Impact of childlessness on life and attitudes towards continuation of medically assisted reproduction and/or adoption

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

  • Gitte L Petersen
  • Lene T Blenstrup
  • Brennan D Peterson
  • Lisbeth B. Knudsen
  • Schmidt, Lone

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.

Original languageEnglish
JournalHuman Fertility
Volume18
Issue number2
Pages (from-to)121-127
Number of pages7
ISSN1464-7273
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2015

ID: 142463570