Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Linköping University, SE-581 85 Linköping, Sweden.
Hum Reprod. 2011 Jul;26(7):1836-42. doi: 10.1093/humrep/der131. Epub 2011 Apr 30.
Involuntary childlessness is a psychological and social dilemma for at least one but usually both members of the childless couples and is thought to have a lifelong impact on many of these couples. Studies of the long-term effects are scarce and the participation rate in published studies is generally very low. We therefore intended to analyse relationships and family structure in couples 20-23 years after the women in these couples had received IVF treatment.
The data are drawn from answers from 788 individuals-81% of the individuals treated. ENRICH has been used to analyse the relationships in those couples who stated that they have remained a couple since their IVF treatment. In total, 412 men and women (206 couples) answered the ENRICH inventory. A total of 14 men and 137 women answered the ENRICH, without their spouse answering the inventory.
We found that the majority of all couples show a stable relationship 20 years or more after the date of IVF treatment. However, the group of couples who remained childless (9.2% of the total study population) during the 20 years following the IVF treatment differ from the majority on the subscale 'Children and Parent' measuring aspects on attitudes and feelings about having and raising children. Another difference seen in the couples that were childless was that men scored significantly higher on 'Conflict resolution' and the couples had a higher average score on positive agreement on the issues on 'Communication' indicating a skill in communication in the relationship and also an agreement that they are communicating well.
We found that the majority of IVF couples (90.8%) who had been treated ∼20 years prior to follow-up had added at least one biological or adopted child to the family during that time. The relationships in couples who had continued to stay together during that period were generally described as being good, whether the couples had become parents or not.
对于至少一对夫妇来说，无法生育孩子是一种心理和社会困境，对于许多这样的夫妇来说，他们认为这会对他们的生活产生终身影响。关于长期影响的研究很少，而且发表的研究的参与率通常非常低。因此，我们旨在分析女性接受试管婴儿治疗 20-23 年后，这些夫妇的关系和家庭结构。
这些数据来自于 788 名接受过试管婴儿治疗的患者中的 81%的个人回答。ENRICH 被用于分析那些自试管婴儿治疗以来一直保持夫妻关系的夫妇的关系。共有 412 名男性和女性（206 对夫妇）回答了 ENRICH 问卷。共有 14 名男性和 137 名女性回答了 ENRICH 问卷，而他们的配偶没有回答问卷。
我们发现，大多数夫妇在接受试管婴儿治疗 20 年或更长时间后，关系稳定。然而，在接受试管婴儿治疗后的 20 年中一直没有孩子的夫妇（占总研究人群的 9.2%）在“孩子和父母”这一子量表上与大多数夫妇不同，该子量表衡量了对生育和养育孩子的态度和感受。在没有孩子的夫妇中还发现了另一个差异，即男性在“解决冲突”方面的得分显著较高，并且夫妇在“沟通”问题上的积极共识方面的平均得分较高，这表明在关系中沟通技巧较高，并且也同意他们沟通良好。
我们发现，在接受随访前约 20 年接受过试管婴儿治疗的 IVF 夫妇中，大多数夫妇（90.8%）在这段时间内已经为家庭添加了至少一个亲生或领养的孩子。在那段时间内继续保持在一起的夫妇的关系通常被描述为良好，无论他们是否成为了父母。
