The fertility quality of life (FertiQoL) tool: development and general psychometric properties(†)

Boivin, Jacky; Takefman, Janet; Braverman, Andrea

The 14 existing self-report measures of infertility-specific distress, treatment reactions and QoL shown in Supplementary data, Table S1 do not fulfill the need for a fertility specific QoL assessment tool (the table includes details of development sample, content and reference). The fertility problem inventory (FPI: Newton et al., 1999) is the most frequently used distress measure. However, the items were developed without consultation with people experiencing fertility problems and the validation sample comprised primarily Caucasian patients from a homogeneous socioeconomic category using assisted reproductive techniques. Further, the FPI assesses level of strain rather than the broader construct of QoL and does not separate effects due to infertility treatment from those due to childlessness, which is important given the emotional challenges of each. These issues apply to most measures listed in Supplementary data, Table S1 . The most frequently used QoL measure was developed for women suffering from polycystic ovarian syndrome (Cronin et al., 1998) . Several studies have examined its psychometric properties (Jones et al., 2008) and used it to investigate moderators of QoL (e.g. obesity) and cross-cultural effects. Results confirm its reliability and the importance of cultural background as a moderator of QoL (Schmid et al., 2004; Adamson, 2009 ). However, this and other quality of life measures for infertility were designed for specific sub-populations (e.g. endometriosis, male factor) and therefore cannot be used as generic measure for all people with fertility problems.