Infertility in Men and Coping Strategies: A Study from India

Diagnosis of male factor infertility questions on men’s procreativity and masculinity. There is insufficient knowledge of how male-factor infertilityinfluences the wellbeing and Coping ability of men (Johanssonet al., 2011). This cross-sectional study was conducted at infertility centres in Mumbai, India. It aims to explore about the coping strategies adopted by the infertile men receiving infertility treatmentin Indian scenario. Coping questionnaire scale developed by Schmidt et al, (2004) has been used. The principal component method was used to extract components for each four of the coping scales i.e. Active avoidance strategies, Active confronting strategies, Passive avoidance strategies and Meaning based coping.The results indicate significant increased use of Active avoidance coping as intensity of infertilitytreatment increases compared to the lower intensity infertilitytreatment. Meaning based coping was used by most of the educated males and those having high income. They think about infertility problem in a positive way, they search for other life goals, try to analyse the problem.It was seen that Active Confronting coping was used largely by the lower age group men than higher age group.Passive avoidance was largely used by Muslims and in other religions than in Hindus.Problem solving strategies or active confronting was chosen bylower age group as there were more chances of successful infertility treatment and high hopes for having a child. The Study shows that the socio-economic determinants influence the coping strategies of males undergoing infertility treatment.