Psychological aspects of male infertility

The aim of this research was to study the effect of suspected infertility on psychological functioning, comparing men who suspect that they are infertile (N = 107) with men who have no such suspicion (N = 30). Infertile men had lower self‐esteem, higher anxiety and showed more somatic symptoms than fertile men. The effects of moderating variables on the psychological functioning of the subfertile men were analysed. The findings were that causality of infertility, feelings of hopelessness and global attribution were related to sexual inadequacy. Depression was uniquely related to stress of infertility and global attribution. Global attribution, though predictive of psychological consequences, was not affected by the objective variables of infertility. 1990 The British Psychological Society