OBJECTIVE: To assess the relationship between infertility, marital benefit, and coping in a sample of men and women undergoing unsuccessful fertility treatments. DESIGN: Prospective longitudinal cohort design using multilevel modeling. SETTING: Danish public and private hospitals (n = 5) specializing in treating fertility patients. PATIENT(S): Participants were Danish men and women about to start a cycle of medically assisted reproduction treatment who were followed for a 5-year period of unsuccessful treatments. INTERVENTION(S): None. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): The Copenhagen Multicenter Psychosocial Infertility research program Coping Strategy Scales and Marital Benefit Measure. RESULT(S): Compared with men, a greater percentage of women reported high levels of marital benefit. For active-avoidance coping, there was a significant partner effect by gender interaction. Meaning-based strategies increased between 1 and 5 years for men and women. The use of meaning-based coping had a significant positive actor effect with marital benefit for both men and women. CONCLUSION(S): Approximately one-third of participants undergoing unsuccessful fertility treatments reported high marital benefit as a positive consequence of the infertility experience. Partner effects for men and women related to active-avoidance coping may be related to the degree of emotional support that each spouse can offer the other, whereas differences in meaning-based coping indicate a possible timing effect related to gender.
OBJECTIVE: To assess the relationship between infertility, marital benefit, and coping in a sample of men and women undergoing unsuccessful fertility treatments. DESIGN: Prospective longitudinal cohort design using multilevel modeling. SETTING: Danish public and private hospitals (n = 5) specializing in treating fertility patients. PATIENT(S): Participants were Danish men and women about to start a cycle of medically assisted reproduction treatment who were followed for a 5-year period of unsuccessful treatments. INTERVENTION(S): None. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): The Copenhagen Multicenter Psychosocial Infertility research program Coping Strategy Scales and Marital Benefit Measure. RESULT(S): Compared with men, a greater percentage of women reported high levels of marital benefit. For active-avoidance coping, there was a significant partner effect by gender interaction. Meaning-based strategies increased between 1 and 5 years for men and women. The use of meaning-based coping had a significant positive actor effect with marital benefit for both men and women. CONCLUSION(S): Approximately one-third of participants undergoing unsuccessful fertility treatments reported high marital benefit as a positive consequence of the infertility experience. Partner effects for men and women related to active-avoidance coping may be related to the degree of emotional support that each spouse can offer the other, whereas differences in meaning-based coping indicate a possible timing effect related to gender.
Authors: Adriana Milazzo; George Mnatzaganian; Adam G Elshaug; Sheryl A Hemphill; Janet E Hiller Journal: PLoS One Date: 2016-11-11 Impact factor: 3.240