Infertility in Men and Treatment Seeking Behaviour: A Study from India

Diagnosis of male factor infertility questions on men’s ability to reproduce and their masculinity. There is a status of inadequate knowledge on how men with male factor infertility seek help, especially when men are considered as not so important part of infertility treatment as women. This study aims to understand the treatment seeking behaviour of men undergoing treatment for male factor infertility. This cross-sectional study was conducted at infertility centre in Mumbai on 150 male infertility patients. An infertile man is defined here as one, who is diagnosed with primary or secondary infertility and undergoing infertility treatment, irrespective of fertility status of wife. Results shows that after knowing about their infertility status for the first time, many of them felt depressed, some felt guilty, got shocked and many of them got stressed and felt isolated. On asking about the discussion of the problem, it was found that every respondent discussed the problem with his wife for the first time and then with parents, In- laws or other family members. A big proportion of the respondents (32 percent) never discussed the problem with anyone except their wives. In almost 70 percent of the cases both husbands and wives decided to go for medical treatment while only in 21 percent cases, husbands themselves decided to seek medical help. Out of 150 respondents, 65 percent of the respondents sought only Allopathic while 35 percent of them opted for AYUSH. On asking about the religious and traditional practices to cure the childlessness, 60 of them confirmed the use of these practices. Destiny, bad luck, life style, medical reasons, late marriage were found as perceived causes of their infertility status.