PURPOSE: To evaluate the level of stress in men and women seeking treatment for infertility and to identify the associated variables. METHODS: A cross-sectional study with 101 men and 101 women consulting for the first time at the Human Reproduction Unit. Participants completed the Brazilian version of the Fertility Problem Inventory (FPI) based on four domains: "social relationships", "life without children"; "marital relationship/sexual" and "maternity/paternity" and a structured questionnaire with socioeconomic and reproductive variables. Bivariate analysis was performed using the Chi-square and Fisher exact tests, considering p<0.05. Afterwards the multivariate correspondence analysis was done with variables with p<0.20. RESULTS: Overall, the participants presented a high level of stress in all domains, except in the "life without children" domain. Multivariate analysis of correspondence showed that variables associated with a high level of stress in the "social relationships" domains were: to be a woman, to have the infertility problem, and to consider the quality of the marital relationship to be regular. In the "life without children" domain the variables that approached the high stress were: to be woman, age between 18 and 24 years, and to have the infertility problem. To be a man, to consider adoption, parents/in-laws and other people knowing about the difficulty to become pregnant, and to consider the quality of the marital relationship to be excellent were the variables associated with high level of stress in "marital/sexual relationship" domain. For "maternity/paternity" domain the variables associated were to be women, consider marital relationship quality regular, age between 25 and 35 years, be evangelical or protestant were the variables associated with a high level of stress. CONCLUSION:Men and women seeking treatment for infertility present a high level of stress and it can be suggested that psychosocial support is important and should be different for men and women.
Infertility; Stress, psychological; Reproduction
