Why do infertile males use psychological couple counselling?

The purpose of the present study was to identify characteristics of male pa tients that could be relevant for the uptake of psychological couple counse lling for infertility. Therefore, 94 male patients who participated in psyc hological couple counselling were compared to 134 unselected infertility pa tients who attended an andrological clinic. Counselling users showed higher scores for depression and anxiety as well as a higher number of impaired s perm parameters. Multivariate analysis revealed that beyond the level of de pression the number of impaired sperm parameters delivered additional infor mation about the probability of a patient using counselling. For interpreta tion of these results the former research was broadly reviewed. It is sugge sted that an increased level of distress, the feeling of being responsible for infertility and few marital difficulties are relevant for the usage of couple counselling by male infertility patients. Practical consequences are discussed. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.