Hendriks S, et al. – The objective of this study is to ascertain the significance of genetic parenthood for infertile men and women. Nearly, all infertile men and women prefer genetic parenthood.

Methods

• Based on a literature review, a questionnaire was developed.
• It was evaluated by professionals and pilot tested among patients.
• The coded paper–pencil questionnaire was disseminated among both partners of 201 heterosexual infertile couples after their first consultation at one of two Belgian fertility clinics between October 2015 and May 2016.
• The survey addressed: (i) the preference for genetic parenthood for themselves and for their partner, (ii) the significance of 30 motivations for genetic parenthood and (iii) the significance of 51 other motivations for parenthood and whether these motivations require being the genetic parent of their child to be fulfilled.
• To simplify the presentation of the results, all 81 motivations were grouped into reliable categories of motivations utilizing psychometric examinations.

Results

• A total of 104 women and 91 men (response rate: 49%) had complete the survey.
• For both their partner and themselves, almost all respondents (98%) favored genetic over non–genetic parenthood.
• 33% of the respondents stated they only wanted to parent their own genetically related child.
• Achieving genetic parenthood for their partner was considered significantly more important than achieving genetic parenthood for themselves.
• Within couples, men had a stronger preference for genetic parenthood (P = 0.004), but this was not significant after correction for educational level, which was significantly connected with the preference of both men and women.
• The 30 motivations for becoming a genetic parent clustered into 11 categories of which 'to experience a natural process’ was deemed most important.
• The 51 motivations for becoming a parent for which having a genetically related child is not strictly necessary clustered into 14 categories of which ‘to contribute to a child's well–being’ and ‘to experience the love of a child’ were most important.
• Respondents deemed they would need to be the genetic parent of their child to fulfill nearly all their motivations for parenthood.