Men's participation in psychologic counseling services offered during in vitro fertilization treatments

Abstract

Objective: To assess frequency of male participation in psychologic support services during IVF treatments. Design: Retrospective descriptive study. Setting: University infertility clinic. Patient(s): A total of 284 low-income men receiving government-financed IVF. Intervention(s): Group counseling during treatment. Main Outcome Measure(s): Frequency of attendance to group counseling and perception of usefulness of the service. Result(s): One-half of the subjects enrolled in the counseling groups. There were no differences in clinical and demographic characteristics between attendants and nonattendants. Attendance was classified into three levels: occasional, intermediate, and consistent. Seventy-four percent of attendants fell into latter two categories. Significant differences were observed in frequency of attendance as a function of infertility etiology. Frequent attendants diagnosed with male-factor-only infertility were double the number of participants with female infertility. Ov