Fertility options for muslim people: acceptability & awareness among clients and health service providers

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Saad El Gelany, MD Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology Faculty of Medicine, El-Minia University, Egypt

Abstract

Objective: The available options for infertile Muslim couples are 1: remaining childless
permanently 2: Polygynous marriage, 3: Divorce; 4: Fostering an orphan legally, or 5: New
reproductive technologies. In nearly 20 nations of the Muslim Middle East and Muslim
people in non-Islamic countries, marriage is highly valued and they can not live happily
without children. Authors have made an important point regarding deficient counseling
concerning awareness, acceptability and offering of these options. To test the above fertility
options awareness & acceptability among infertile couples & consultants.
Materials& Methods: 120 Muslim couples & 20 consultants were surveyed over a 6-months
period were surveyed for their knowledge of fertility options awareness, acceptability and
offering. It was hypothesized that less than 50% of the subjects had an adequate understanding of the available options.
Results: 33% (n= 80) of subjects (for clients) had a score of 5 or more which was considered
as having an adequate understanding of the available options, while less than 20 % of doctors (n = 4) offering other options during counseling. .The hypothesis was accepted, giving
reason for concern about the effectiveness of consumer education at all levels of fertility
management.
Conclusions: In Muslim communities, fertility awareness is generally very poor among clients and consultants. The authors believe that there are many positive implications for
promoting patient education about fertility awareness.

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