A RESEARCHERS GUIDE TO INVESTIGATING THE PSYCHOLOGICAL SEQUELAE OF INFERTILITY - METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Research into the psychological sequelae of infertility has been plagued by a number of methodological problems. The most common methodological concerns involve conceptual confusion regarding the measurement and existence of psychiatric morbidity among the infertile, selection of convenience samples which limit generalizability, and failure to analyze the influence of important variables like diagnosis, treatment length, dyadic concordance and dyadic patterns. These methodological limitations are detailed and recommendations are made for future research.