Quality of Life and Its Influencing Factors of Couples Referred to An Infertility Center in Shiraz, Iran

BACKGROUND: Infertility adversely affects quality of life (QoL). The present study aims to evaluate QoL and its associated factors among infertile couples. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, the Fertility QoL (FertiQoL) instrument was used to measure QoL among 501 volunteer couples who attended the Infertility Clinic at the Mother and Child Hospital, Shiraz, Iran. We used an additional questionnaire to assess participants’ demographic and clinical characteristics. The relationship between the scores of QoL to the sociodemographic and treatment data was analysed. RESULTS: The subjects with lower income levels had lower relational, mind/body, emotional, and total core scores. Female participants without academic education had lower scores in the emotional subscale, while the male participants showed lower scores in emotional, mind/body, relational, social, and total QoL domains. Subjects who had undergone any type of treatment, including pharmacological treatment, intrauterine insemination (IUI), intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), and in vitro fertilization (IVF) showed significantly lower scores in the environmental domain. Participants with lower infertility duration obtained significantly greater QoL scores. Finally, tolerability, emotional, and environmental domains were significantly more desirable when the infertility problem was related to a male factor. CONCLUSION: Infertile couples with shorter duration of infertility and male etiology have higher QoL. Lower academic education, lower income levels, or prior unsuccessful treatments are associated with lower QoL.