ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: The effectiveness of fertility treatments is influenced by the health care professionals' knowledge regarding infertility as well as their empathy. AIM: The aim of the study was to examine infertility-related knowledge and perceptions of emotional and mind/body consequences of infertility among medical students. METHODS: A questionnaire design was used. Data were obtained from 112 medical university students (76 women, 36 men) who participated involuntary and compensation-free. RESULTS: Medical students' knowledge concerning infertility proved to be incomplete and ambiguous. Subjects underestimated the presence of mind/body and emotional symptoms caused by infertility in men particularly, and overestimated some emotional concerns in women, e.g. sadness. CONCLUSIONS: Medical students have gaps in their subject-specific knowledge, so that they need more (even practical) information regarding infertility during their studies. Students' conceptions about emotional and physical consequences of infertility are distorted by stereotypes. The risk of these biases is that it could make it difficult to perceive patients in a non-distorted way, especially infertile male patients.
