A 3-year follow-up of emotional, marital and sexual functioning in couples who were infertile

Abstract

Couples who were attending an infertility clinic were reassessed after 3 years. Their emotional, marital and sexual functioning was compared with initial values to assess the impact of time. Approximately one half of the group for whom data was available had subsequently produced their own biological child. Comparisons between continuing infertile and subsequently fertile groups were made. The findings suggest that psychological functioning does not improve with time where there is continuing infertility. There is some evidence of deterioration in self-esteem in males in these circumstances. Overall marital adjustment tended to deteriorate but this was parallelled in the fertile groups. There was a general decrease in the frequency of sexual intercourse in both fertile and infertile groups. There were suggestions that a diagnosis of male infertility might lead to more negative emotional outcome in males and that men's emotional states early in infertility treatment might influence fertility outcome. In addition particular types of coping strategies were associated with negative emotional adjustment and more marital and sexual dysfunction, especially in women.