Marital benefit and coping strategies in men and women undergoing unsuccessful fertility treatments over a 5-year period

Objective: To assess the relationship between infertility, marital benefit, and coping in a sample of men and women undergoing unsuccessful fertility treatments. Design: Prospective longitudinal cohort design using multilevel modeling. Setting: Danish public and private hospitals (n = 5) specializing in treating fertility patients. Patient(s): Participants were Danish men and women about to start a cycle of medically assisted reproduction treatment who were followed for a 5-year period of unsuccessful treatments. Intervention(s): None. Main Outcome Measure(s): The Copenhagen Multicenter Psychosocial Infertility research program Coping Strategy Scales and Marital Benefit Measure. Result(s): Compared with men, a greater percentage of women reported high levels of marital benefit. For active-avoidance coping, there was a significant partner effect by gender interaction. Meaning-based strategies increased between 1 and 5 years for men and women. The use of meaning-based coping had a significant positive actor effect with marital benefit for both men and women. Conclusion(s): Approximately one-third of participants undergoing unsuccessful fertility treatments reported high marital benefit as a positive consequence of the infertility experience. Partner effects for men and women related to active-avoidance coping may be related to the degree of emotional support that each spouse can offer the other, whereas differences in meaning-based coping indicate a possible timing effect related to gender. (Fertil Steril (R) 2011;95:1759-63. (C)2011 by American Society for Reproductive Medicine.)