Chapter one Background Infertility is a worldwide health problem that affects both men and women and has a significant impact on their lives. Globally, 10-15% of childbearing age couples experience infertility (1-2). Globally the number of infertile couples has increased since 1990 when 42,0 million couples were unable to have a child, in 2010 it was estimated that 48,5 million couples worldwide was dealing with infertility and 19,2 million couples are unable to have the first child while 29,3 million couples are unable to have a second child, 14.4 million of these couples are living in South Asia and 10.0 million lives in South Saharan Africa (81). According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 80 million people in the world live …show more content…
It impacts the health and well-being of individuals, couples, and society as a whole. The burden of infertility includes psychological, social, and physical consequences such as anxiety, depression, helplessness, marital intimidation, abandonment, economic hardship, social stigma, social isolation, and physical violence (5, 8). Several studies reported that infertility and its treatments have a significant impact on infertile couple’s quality of life (QOL) (9-13). These studies have shown that the QOL of infertile women is lower than the QOL of infertile men (9), and it also shown that the women are at more risk to develop more emotional problems than the men (14). Then we have the environmental domain that plays a huge role in the couples lives, unemployed infertile men tend to have significant lower score means in the physical health and the social relation domains than the women …show more content…
To assess the quality of life among Jordanian infertile couples and compare the quality of life of male and female partners. 2. To determine the relationship between various domains of quality of life of infertile couples (emotional, mind/body, relational, social, environmental and tolerability). 3. To determine the association of levels of quality of life of infertile couples with selected variables. Research Questions 1. What is the level of the quality of life (QOL) among Jordanian infertile couples? 2. Is there a difference in the level of the quality of life between male and female Jordanian partners? 3. Is there a relationship between various domains of quality of life of Jordanian infertile couples; emotional, mind/body, relational, social, environmental, and tolerability.