Antenatal paternal adjustment and paternal attitudes after infertility treatment

Do mode of conception [ART versus Natural (NC)] and depression have an interactive effect on antenatal paternal adjustment and paternal attitudes?

Depression increased the negative effect of ART on antenatal paternal adjustment and paternal attitudes, specifically on antenatal marital relationship satisfaction.

Research on antenatal paternal adjustment and paternal attitudes after ART is scarce and has produced inconsistent results.

This cross-sectional study assessed 197 primiparous men (71 ART and 126 NC) during their partner's second trimester of gestation.

Participants were derived from three larger longitudinal studies recruited at public Health Services in Northern Portugal. All men, for who this was their first child and had filled in a socio-demographic questionnaire, measures of depression and anxiety, and antenatal paternal adjustment and paternal attitudes were selected.

An interaction effect of mode of conception and depression was found on antenatal paternal adjustment and paternal attitudes. ART men showing high depressive symptomatology had lower antenatal marital relationship satisfaction than ART men showing low depressive symptomatology and NC men showing high or low depressive symptomatology.

Due to the cross-sectional design of this study and the small sample size in the depression groups, the findings should be interpreted with caution.

Specialized psychological support should be available for ART men screened with high depressive symptomatology as part of routine prenatal care appointments.

This study was conducted at Psychology Research Centre (UID/PSI/ 01662/2013), University of Minho, and at the Unidade de Investigação em Epidemiologia-Instituto de Saúde Pública da Universidade do Porto (EPIUnit) (UID/DTP/04750/2013). It was supported by the Foundation for Science and Technology (Portuguese Ministry of Education and Science) through National funds and co-financed by FEDER through COMPETE2020 under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007653) and through the Operational Programme Factors of Competitiveness-COMPETE within the project 'Health, Governance and Accountability in Embryo Research: Couples' Decisions About the Fates of Embryos' (FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-014453), the FCT Investigator contract IF/01674/2015 and PhD grants (SFRH/BD/115048/2016, SFRH/BD/75807/2011 and SFRH/BD/40146/2007). The authors have no conflicts of interest.