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Methodological considerations (II)
Men may be more inclined to deny psychopathology
Men and women may respond in different ways to stress, e. g. alcohol use or depression
Any gender differences may reflect more general differences
in response to stress rather than being specific to infertility (Edelmann & Connolly 2000)
With statistical approaches that keep matched pairs, differences between men and women are much smaller than testing the samples as independent groups
(Chamamovich et al. 2009)
Heidelberg University Hospital | ESHRE PCC 8 Vienna (Austria) 23 June 2019 | Prof. Dr. Tewes Wischmann | 9
Stigmatisation of male factor infertility
To be diagnosed with male factor infertility may result in
secrecy surrounding diagnosis, sometimes to the point that
women take the blame for the couples’ infertility (Carmeli & Birenbaum-Carmeli 1994; van Balen 1996)
The relatives of the (formerly) infertile woman are more likely to be informed about successful treatment with donor insemination than the relatives of the man
(Wischmann 2010)
Media reports on “the sperm decline” construct stereotypical
masculinity and conflate male infertility with impotence (Gannon et al. 2004; q .v. Mikkelsen et al. 2010)
Heidelberg University Hospital | ESHRE PCC 8 Vienna (Austria) 23 June 2019 | Prof. Dr. Tewes Wischmann | 10
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