Do infertile women and their partners have equal experiences with fertility care?

ObjectiveTo study the possible differences between women and their partners’ experiences with patient-centered fertility care.DesignA cross-sectional study.SettingThirty-two Dutch fertility clinics.Patient(s)A total of 1,620 infertile women and their partners, under treatment in one of the participating clinics, were randomly selected to participate in this study.Intervention(s)None.Main Outcome Measure(s)Level of patient-centeredness, measured with the validated Patient-Centeredness Questionnaire–Infertility questionnaire (PCQ-Infertility).Result(s)Questionnaires from 696 women and 520 partners were analyzed. No significant difference in PCQ-Infertility total score was found between women and their partners. The partners scored significantly higher on the subscales “respect for patients values” and “staff’s competence” compared with the women.Conclusion(s)Patients’ experiences with fertility care are only slightly different between women and their partners. This can be valuable in the process of improvement of patient-centered fertility care, one of the core dimensions of quality of care.