A prospective investigation into the reasons why insured United States patients drop out of in vitro fertilization treatment

Couples’ discontinuation of fertility treatments: a longitudinal study on demographic, biomedical, and psychosocial risk factors

“…According to these studies, a psychological burden is the most commonly cited reason by patients for discontinuation [3,5,10,[12][13][14]. Psychological variables have also been found to predict discontinuation [9,15], and associations between discontinuation and marital and personal problems [13,16,17], perceived poor diagnosis [5,13], female age [15,18,19], and parity [20] have also been reported.…”

“…Within developed countries, more than half of these couples seek medical help [1] and pursue fertility treatment [3,4]. However, a significant portion decides to discontinue fertility care.…”

“…The high prevalence of discontinuation, an estimated 30% of couples [3,5], is thus surprising. Discontinuation rates nevertheless vary across studies (e.g., 5.6% [9], 70% [10]) because of the use of different conceptualizations of discontinuation.…”

“…Third, most studies have focused on the individual, particularly females [3,12,23] ( [16,24] for exceptions), yet the decision to discontinue treatment is likely made by both members of the couple, as are previous reproductive choices such as the decision to stop contraception or pursue treatment [25,26]. Fourth, researchers have generally used either demographic and biomedical variables [17,20,27] or psychosocial variables [3,12] as independent variables. Recently, a study has investigated demographic, medical, and psychosocial predictors [24].…”

The Partnership and Coping Enhancement Programme for couples undergoing in vitro fertilization treatment: the development of a complex intervention in China

“…It was reported that infertile couples who had undergone treatment for over 2 years were less happy with their marriage than those in their first 2 years of treatment [7]. Study has also shown that a couple's relationship is affected by infertility and its related treatment, and that this is a major reason why couples terminate IVF treatment [8]. This calls for health professionals working with infertile couples to turn their attention to the marital functions of these couples.…”