Fertile Period Awareness Knowledge, Attitudes and Practice in Infertile Couples Seeking Fertility Assistance: A Cross-sectional Study

Background: Infertility is one of the most stressful situations a couple can face.Anxiety, despair, tension, loss of self-esteem, guilt, and grief may be exacerbated by medical procedures in these couples. However, most occurrences of infertility may be related to a physiological cause in the male or woman, according to various research. Previous research has revealed that poor fertility period awareness among couples seeking help at infertility clinics may be a contributing cause of infertility.The real practises and attitudes regarding reproductive awareness in this group of patients are unknown, and they must be investigated.

Aim: The purpose of this paper is to present the findings of a study on fertile period awareness, as well as their knowledge, attitude, and practise among infertile couples seeking fertility treatment. Design: This is a questionnaire-based cross-sectional study. The study lasted six months, from June to December 2017, and involved couples who visited the infertility clinic at Smt Kashibai Navale Medical College and General Hospital in Pune.

Results: A total of 246 out of 280 surveys were administered (response rate =87.8%). In their attempts at conception, 60% of individuals (n=147) believed they had timed intercourse within the fertile window of the menstrual cycle, but only 36% (n=52) could precisely identify this window.

Although 23 percent of the participants in this trial (n=56) had previously received therapy, 50 percent were unaware of the fertile window. Due to various factors, only 15% (n=38) of the 246 couples were actually practising fertile period, and the majority of them were unaware of or did not rely on the notion of fertile period. Almost 94 % of them believed that they should receive fertility-awareness education when they first report trouble in conceiving to their doctor.

Conclusion: Most couples seeking help at infertility clinics were unaware of the fertile window of the menstrual cycle, and only a few were able to precisely identify it, suggesting that a lack of fertility knowledge could be a contributing factor in infertility.