Differences in quality of life between infertile women and men in Turkey.

Objective: To examine potential differences in quality of life between infertile women and men.

Design: A descriptive, cross-sectional design.

Method: A questionnaire was used to collect individuals' sociodemographic data; the World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF) tool was used to collect information about quality of life.

Participants: The research sample comprised 248 infertile individuals (141 women and 107 men) admitted to the clinic for the first time for diagnosis and treatment between January 1 and June 30, 2007, and who voluntarily agreed to participate.

Setting: The research was conducted at the Ege University Family Planning and Infertility Research and Training Center Infertility Clinic in Izmir, Turkey.

Results: Physical health, psychological health, and social relations domain score means did not show significant differences between infertile women and infertile men (p>.05). However, score means for the environment domain were significantly higher (p<.05) for infertile women than for infertile men. Unemployed infertile men had significantly lower score means in the physical health and social relation domains (p<.01). No such significant differences were found for the other quality of life domain scores for infertile women or infertile men (p>.05).

Conclusion: In the environmental domain, the quality of life of infertile women was greater than that of infertile men. Variables affecting quality of life of infertile individuals were seen to affect women and men in similar ways. Nurses and health care professionals caring for infertile individuals should be aware of the factors that affect quality of life and should plan to meet their care needs accordingly.