Objective: To evaluate awareness amongst general population attending Civil Hospital Karachi regarding risk factors associated with infertility.
Methods: A descriptive study was conducted on subjects who were attendants to the patients admitted in Civil Hospital Karachi or had appointment in outpatient department. They were interviewed one-on-one after their verbal consent, through separate questionnaires for each gender, from September 2012 to January 2013. Minimal age of the respondents included was 18 years. Data was entered and analyzed in SPSS (version 20.0).
Results: A total of 289 attendants were interviewed, 150 were females, with mean age 38.1 +/- 11.3 years, remaining 139 were males having a mean age of 32.5 +/- 9.9 years. Correct knowledge about the risk factors causing infertility was found to be limited among people. Only 159 (66.9%) and 142 (49%) of the total respondents recognized obesity and diabetes as a threat. Just 54 (36%) and 72 (48%) of females were able to appreciate hirsutism and menorrhagia respectively as cause. Sixty (43%) and 67 (48%) of males considered mumps and smoking respectively as culprits. In contrast to previous researches, men received greater votes for being a probable victim of infertility (55%; 159 of the total respondents).
Conclusion: Inadequacy of knowledge about infertility was clearly demonstrated through this study. This lack of knowledge explains why such a strong stigma is attached to infertility in the society.