WHY ARE COUPLES SATISFIED WITH INFERTILITY TREATMENT

Objective: To determine which factors relate to satisfaction with infe rtility treatment. Design: A prospective structured interview research design was used. Setting: In-person and telephone interviews were con ducted. Participants: Wives and husbands from 185 couples in southeast ern Michigan with primary infertility were studied. Main Outcome Measu res: There were two main outcome measures: how satisfied people were w ith the infertility treatment they received and why they were satisfie d. Results: Both men and women were satisfied with the infertility tre atment they had received. The most frequently mentioned reasons for sa tisfaction were the technical skills and the emotional support of infe rtility specialists. Both men and women advised infertility specialist s to be compassionate and share information with their patients. Spous es' satisfaction with treatment was the greatest predictor for both me n and women. For men, using escape as a coping skill was a negative pr edictor for treatment satisfaction. For women, personal control and th e number of infertility treatments received were other predictors for treatment satisfaction. Conclusions: As hypothesized, a variety of psy chosocial factors were related to treatment satisfaction. Contrary to expectation, treatment costs and how long respondents had been trying to have a child were not related to treatment satisfaction. This study 's results suggest that physicians and their staff should pay particul ar attention to their patients' emotional needs, to their patients' un derstanding of procedures explained to them, to discussing adoption wi th their patients, to involving men more in the infertility treatment, and to assisting women to have more control over their course of trea tment.