Research and Clinical Center for Infertility, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences of Yazd
Abstract
Background: Knowledge of infertile couples about assisted
reproductive technology is a fundamental parameter to optimize the
infertility treatment and conduct it cooperatively. Objective: To
evaluate knowledge and attitude of infertile couples about assisted
reproductive technology we designed a descriptive cross-sectional
study. Materials and Methods: 400 infertile patients were
investigated by a self- administered structured questionnaire about
demographic data, infertility history, and several relevant variables
in an out patient infertility clinic of a university hospital. The main
outcome measurements included scoring the answers in the questionnaire
regarding knowledge, and grouping the answers regarding attitude.
Resulted data were analyzed in relation to patient’s gender and
treatment history, and educational, ethnic and religious groups.
Results: Of 400 cases (251 women and 149 men) 167 patients (41.7%)
were scaled to have good knowledge and 223 patients (55.7%) had a poor
knowledge about ART. 74.6% of patients with advanced education and
30.3% of patients without advanced education were scaled to be good in
knowledge. 45.6% of men, 43.4% of women and 64.8% of patients with a
history of passing previous ART cycles had a good knowledge. The source
of information was mentioned to be the ART centers in 73% of cases. 95%
of patients disagreed to have sperm or ovum donation or to undergo
surrogacy. 22% of all patients (27.5% of women versus 12.1% of men)
agreed with embryo reduction. 94.5% of patients mentioned the ART
expenses not to be affordable readily. Conclusions: Less than half of
patients presented to be knowledgeable about ART. Not a great portion
of the patients agreed with sperm donation. ART expense is mentioned to
be burdensome by nearly all of the patients