Do infertile women and their partners have equal experiences with fertility care?

Objective: To study the possible differences between women and their partners' experiences with patient-centered fertility care. Design: A cross-sectional study. Setting: Thirty-two Dutch fertility clinics. Patient(s): A total of 1,620 infertile women and their partners, under treatment in one of the participating clinics, were randomly selected to participate in this study. Intervention(s): None. Main Outcome Measure(s): Level of patient-centeredness, measured with the validated Patient-Centeredness Questionnaire-Infertility questionnaire (PCQ-Infertility). Result(s): Questionnaires from 696 women and 520 partners were analyzed. No significant difference in PCQ-Infertility total score was found between women and their partners. The partners scored significantly higher on the subscales respect for patients values'' and staff's competence'' compared with the women. Conclusion(s): Patients' experiences with fertility care are only slightly different between women and their partners. This can be valuable in the process of improvement of patient-centered fertility care, one of the core dimensions of quality of care. (Fertil Steril (R) 2013;99:832-8.(C) 2013 by American Society for Reproductive Medicine.)