Abstract:
Objective: To characterize the fertility quality of life (QoL) in Pakistani infertile women using FertiQoL questionnaire tool
and establish a reference level of QoL for clinical applications and future studies.
Materials and Methods: The cross-sectional survey was conducted from May to October 2015 at the Department of Baqai
Institute of Reproductive Sciences (BIRDS) of Baqai Medical University. Hundred married women diagnosed with primary
or secondary infertility, aged 18 years or above, literate and those who could communicate were enrolled in this study. The
study participants also completed the Fertility Quality of Life Questionnaire (FertiQoL), a disease specific validated tool to
measure quality of Life. SPSS version 20.0 was used for statistical analyses.
Results: Seventy percent women were of 31-40 years, age at marriage less than 30 years (69%), educational qualification of
bachelors (38%), unemployed (82%) and duration of infertility less than five years (76%). Primary infertility was predominant
with78%. The women who completed the FertiQol had Mean (SD) for Core FertiQol and treatment FertiQol as 52.17 (13.13)
and 54.25 (11.23) respectively. Among the subscales of Core FertiQol the lowest mean scores for Emotional, Mind/ Body,
Relational and Social were Mean (SD) as 53.30 (15.23), 50.67 (19.28), 47.34 (12.62) and 57.38 (11.23). The Mean (SD) for
treatment FertiQol was 54.25 (11.23) with Mean (SD) for Environment and Tolerability were 49.13 (9.64) and 59.37 (16.87),
respectively.
Conclusion: The disease specific quality of life assessment tool Ferti Qol objectively measures the quality of life as well as
its various domains, thus providing a more detailed and useful information for treatment.