Human infertility: is medical treatment enough? A cross-sectional study of a sample of Italian couples.

Objective: To explore infertile couples' well-being, needs and drop-out rates considering their previous gynaecological history, treatments and support received.

Methods: Self-reported questionnaires and a telephone follow-up were used to gather data from a sample of 57 Italian couples undergoing first-step procedures for infertility treatment. The questions concerned socio-demographic and personality factors, global perspective on generation, childbearing motivation, intra-psychic and relational dimensions.

Health technology assessment (HTA): ethical aspects.

"HTA is a multidisciplinary process that summarizes information about the medical, social, economic and ethical issues related to the use of a health technology in a systematic, transparent, unbiased, robust manner. Its aim is to inform the formulation of safe, effective, health policies that are patient focused, and seek to achieve best value" (EUnetHTA 2007). Even though the assessment of ethical aspects of a health technology is listed as one of the objectives of a HTA process, in practice, the integration of these dimensions into reports remains limited.