FERTILITY AND INFERTILITY TREATMENT KNOWLEDGE AMONG MEN AGED 18-50 IN THE US

To validate the Fertility and Infertility Treatment Knowledge Scale (FIT-KS) among men aged 18-50 in the United States, and to assess fertility knowledge among men in the general population, with comparison to the female population in the original validation study. Cross-sectional web-based survey study. An online survey with format identical to that previously constructed for the original FIT-KS validation study was administered to English-fluent men aged 18-50 residing in the United States. STATA v15.1 was used to compute descriptive statistics, and conduct analyses, including the Student’s t, Pearson’s X2, Spearman’s ρ, and Kruskal-Wallis tests, to assess for correlation to demographics and comparison between the male and female cohorts. The study received IRB exemption. In preliminary analysis, 99 men completed the survey, with median age 30 [28, 37]; 50 (50.5%) were single, with 14 (14.1%) in a relationship, 33 (33.3%) married, 2 (2%) divorced. Most (65.7%) had no children, and identified as White (74.8%), with 9.1% Hispanic or Asian, and 7.1% Black. The majority (89.9%) reported an annual household income at or below $100k, and 60.6% held a college or higher degree. The mean FIT-KS score was 12.3 +/- 0.34 (out of 29, 42.4% correct). Increasing age was the only significant demographic predictor of higher FIT-KS score (p=0.002). In item analysis, notable findings include: though 74 (74.8%) knew at which ages women are most fertile, many (48.5%) overestimated age of maximal fertility decline, fecundability at age 30 (63.6%) or at age 40 (71.7%), and 74.7% underestimated the spontaneous miscarriage rate. Only 6.1% agreed that men can contribute to a couple's infertility, though 25.3% acknowledged male age could impact fertility. Only 17.2% knew how long sperm survive in the female reproductive tract. A majority were generally aware of lifestyle issues that impact fertility, though only 31.3% knew about lubricants. When asked about IVF, 19.2% overestimated success rates at female age 35 and 85.9% at age 44. The twin rate was underestimated by 70.7%, and 95% overestimated success rates for oocyte cryopreservation. When compared to the original validation cohort, men in this sample scored lower than women on total FIT-KS score (12.3 +/- 0.34 vs. 16.2 +/- 0.32), as well as in natural fertility and infertility treatment sub-sections (all p<0.0001). These preliminary results uphold the conclusion that fertility knowledge in the general population is low. Though the validation analysis for the FIT-KS in men is ongoing, these findings suggest that men also tend to overestimate natural fertility and infertility treatment success rates and underestimate risks and impact of lifestyle. Most surprising, the low rate of acknowledging the male role in infertility suggests a particular need for education in this area. Outreach efforts aimed at educating the public about fertility must target both men and women to sufficiently penetrate the general population and correct gaps in knowledge.