Participants included women who pursued treatment for infertility, currently or in the past. Professional participants included physicians and RNs caring for women making infertility treatment decisions. 

Needs Assessment questionnaires (one for patients and one for clinicians) were adapted from Jacobsen & O’Connor’s “Population Needs Assessment Questionnaires.”  

Participants’ opinions and perceptions were elicited regarding difficult decisions related to infertility treatment, desired roles in decision-making processes, barriers encountered during decision-making, and measures and resources to facilitate decision-making. Patients completed the Decisional Conflict Scale to assess their uncertainty regarding medical decisions, factors that play a role in the uncertainty, and the perceived effectiveness of their decisions. Questionnaires were located on the website www.surveymonkey.com.  

Women were recruited through non-profit organizations that serve women who are undergoing, or have undergone treatment for infertility. Professionals were recruited through notices placed on email discussion lists maintained by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.  
Frequency counts of the participants’ responses, and qualitative analysis were used to identify pertinent concepts, patterns, attributes, or themes.
 

517 patient and 39 professional questionnaires were analyzed. Women described several types of decisions that they made, including specific treatment decisions such as when to change medications, deciding when to move on to the next level of treatment, or ending treatment altogether. They often reported having insufficient information, and ethical and financial concerns regarding treatment decisions. Participants reported that the resources that would be most helpful for decision-making include counseling from physicians, discussion groups with other women in treatment, and Internet websites and forums regarding infertility.