Impact of childlessness on life and attitudes towards continuation of medically assisted reproduction and/or adoption

Infertility and fertility treatment have the potential to impact and disrupt a couple’s overall life. In order to study the associations between the impact of childlessness on one’s life, and men and women’s attitudes towards fertility treatment continuation and/or adoption, we analysed data from a one-year follow-up questionnaire in a prospective, longitudinal cohort study of consecutive
couples initiating fertility treatment in Denmark. The study comprised 302 couples with no children at baseline and no joint children at one-year follow-up. In total, 71.9% of women and 72.5% of men reported that they wished to continue fertility treatment, while 20.2% of women and 19.2% of men reported that they wished to pursue adoption. The attitudes of nearly 8 in 10 couples
were congruent towards further fertility treatments, while nearly 7 in 10 couples were congruent in their attitudes to pursuing adoption. Significantly more men who reported a lower impact of childlessness on their daily life wished to continue fertility treatment, compared with those reporting that childlessness had a greater impact on their life. Among women, significantly more were
undecided about whether or not to pursue adoption when reporting a greater impact of childlessness on social life, compared with those reporting a lower impact of their childlessness.