The relationship between sex role and emotional functioning in patients undergoing assisted conception

It is suggested that infertility may be distressing because it results in an inability to fulfil traditional roles and thus those individuals who adhere to traditional sex roles may be more distressed by the experience of infertility. In order to examine the relationship between sex role and emotional well-being in infertility patients, 58 women attending a clinic for assisted conception procedures and 31 of their male partners completed questionnaires assessing sex-role type (i.e. masculine, feminine, androgynous or undifferentiated) and emotional, marital and sexual functioning. Women with a traditional feminine sex-role type were more anxious than those with a masculine sex-role type but there were no differences in depression or marital or sexual functioning. Men with an undifferentiated sex-role type were more anxious and depressed than those with other sex-role types. The findings are discussed in terms of the relationship between sex role and infertility, previous research into sex differences in distress amongst infertility patients, and the problems associated with measuring distress.