Infertility Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Infertility, including details on male and female infertility, treatment, causes, pregnancy.

Stress reduction in male infertility patients: a randomized, controlled trial.

Pook M, Krause W

Department of Psychology, University of Siegen, Siegen, Germany. martin.pook@isb.bayern.de

OBJECTIVE: To assess the impact of preparatory information about the fertility workup on the patients' well-being. DESIGN: Two-group, randomized controlled study. SETTING: An andrology clinic. PATIENT(S): Two hundred fifty men enrolled for fertility workup. INTERVENTION(S): A two-page leaflet with preparatory information about the fertility workup, which was mailed to half of the participants after they had made an appointment. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Questionnaire score for infertility-related distress at clinic attendance, proportion of participants that still had not attended 6 months after the scheduled appointment. RESULT(S): Distress scores and the proportion of nonattendees were significantly reduced in the group receiving the leaflet. An additional analysis revealed that 55% of the receivers did not know that the andrology clinic has its own web site, which was mentioned in the leaflet several times. CONCLUSION(S): Although it is uncertain how many patients actually read a routinely sent leaflet, preparatory information in written form is beneficial, at least for a significant subgroup of men who consider undergoing fertility workup. Fertility services might reduce the number of nonattendees by sending out leaflets.

Published 17 January 2005 in Fertil Steril, 83(1): 68-73.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

© 2004-2008 Infertility Research Today. All Rights Reserved.