Here's some information on a hair-raising study done by my ex-colleague
at The University Health Network in Toronto, Donna Stewart. You can get
the whole thing on Medscape.

The Disconnect: Infertility Patients' Information and the Role They Wish to
Play in Decision Making

Donna E. Stewart, MD, Barry Rosen, MD, Jane Irvine, PhD, Paul Ritvo,
PhD, Heather Shapiro, MD, Joan Murphy, MD, Jackie Thomas, MD, Gail E.
Robinson,
MD, Jan Neuman, MSc, Raisa Deber, PhD

[Medscape Women's Health 6(4), 2001. =A9 2001 Medscape, Inc.]
Abstract

To determine the preferred role in medical decision making of women
undergoing fertility treatments and to
establish whether their knowledge of treatments is adequate to inform their
choices.
Methods: Self-report survey of 404 women undergoing fertility treatments in
2 university hospitals and a private fertility
clinic in Canada.
Results: The women had been in fertility treatment for 2.3 =B1
2.6 years; 67.8% reported taking fertility drugs. Most (61.7%) women
wanted to share knowledge equally with their doctors about possible
fertility treatments. However, about half wanted to decide alone or
mostly by themselves about the acceptability of treatment risks and
benefits (56%), what treatments should be selected (49.8%), and when to
conclude treatments (54.3%). In addition, 55.1% of the women did not know
their personal eventual chances of pregnancy with fertility treatment or
thought it was 50% or greater. Over half of the women (57.2%) who had
taken fertility drugs were unaware of a possible link between fertility
drugs and increased ovarian cancer risk. The majority of women (61.8%)
who knew of this possible association reported that they learned about it
from the print media. Women who knew of the association had a poor
understanding of the strength of the evidence or the ability to detect or
treat ovarian cancer successfully, and 88.3% thought they could reduce
cancer risk by following their doctors' advice.
Conclusions: Despite these women's wishes to actively
participate in fertility treatment decisions, they lacked the necessary
information to do so meaningfully. Public health policymakers,
professional and advocacy organizations, physicians, other healthcare
providers, and women themselves must find ways to improve the general
public's and patients' understanding about fertility treatment outcomes
and risks.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hilde L. Nelson, Ph.D.
Philosophy Department
503 South Kedzie Hall
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824
tel: (517) 353-3981
fax: (517) 432-1320
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