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Partnered Decisions? U.S. Couples and Medical Help‐Seeking for Infertility
Author(s) -
Johnson Katherine M.,
Johnson David R.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
family relations
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 87
eISSN - 1741-3729
pISSN - 0197-6664
DOI - 10.1111/j.1741-3729.2009.00564.x
Subject(s) - infertility , fertility , context (archaeology) , psychology , help seeking , logistic regression , social psychology , family medicine , medicine , population , environmental health , pregnancy , psychiatry , mental health , paleontology , genetics , biology
We examined male partners' influence on the decision to seek medical help for infertility using the National Study of Fertility Barriers. Building upon an existing help‐seeking framework, we incorporated characteristics of both partners from 219 heterosexual couples who had ever perceived a fertility problem. In logistic regression analyses, we found an association between couple‐level attitudes and medical help‐seeking even when other predisposing and enabling conditions existed. Overall, the findings highlight that both partners contribute to the infertility help‐seeking process, and that different factors may play a role in different stages of help‐seeking. Studies of infertility help‐seeking need to be more inclusive of the context that these decisions are embedded within to better understand service use.