Infertility knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs among Iranian college students

Abstract

The knowledge, attitudes and beliefs of college students about infertility was assessed. A questionnaire was designed. The target population was students attending a college located in Fooladshahr, Isfahan, Iran. The main research outcome measures for this study were to determine the infertility knowledge, attitudes and beliefs among these students. Our results demonstrated that there are differences in knowledge, attitudes and beliefs of students based on gender. A greater proportion of female students answered more questions correctly in comparison to their male counterparts. Also the majority of students knew about some of the biological and lifestyle factors related to infertility, including that infertility is a problem for both men and women, and the effects of genetics, abnormal sperm production and/or function, blocked fallopian tube and environmental factors on fertility. However, there were notable gaps in fertility knowledge in some areas, such as the most fertile time in a woman’s menstrual cycle, the age range with a marked decrease in a woman’s ability to become pregnant, negative effects of advanced age on men’s fertility, and negative effects of genital tract infection, being underweight or overweight, smoking, alcohol, psychological stress and sexually transmitted infection. In Conclusion the awareness of female students in some cases is significantly more than that of males. It also appears that there is an overall perception that women are more likely to become infertile due to any number of causes that are, in fact, of equal risk to both men and women. © 2019, Dorma Journals. All rights reserved.