Serbian medical students’ fertility awareness and attitudes towards future parenthood

Abstract

Objectives: Medical students represent a group particularly at risk of involuntary childlessness due to their highly demanding careers and university curriculum. The aim of this study was to investigate Serbian medical students’ attitudes towards future parenthood and their awareness of fertility issues.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among fourth year students at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Serbia, between 12 and 16 December 2016. Data were collected through an anonymous 56-item validated questionnaire, translated into the Serbian language. The participation rate was 87.1%.

Results: More than 95% of students, regardless of gender, wanted to have children in the future; most indicated three as the desired number of children. Both genders equally rated the importance of having children. Women rated significantly higher the likelihood of IVF treatment or child adoption if faced with infertility (both p = .001). All students wanted to have their first child before the age of 35 years. Knowledge about the age-related decline in female fertility was not satisfactory. Women found it more important to have children when they felt sufficiently mature, were in a stable relationship, were financially secure, had completed their studies, were not too old to have children, and had access to childcare, although these prerequisites were rated highly by both genders.

Conclusion: Serbian medical students greatly value and have a positive perception of future parenthood. Appropriate education is needed, however, because of their inadequate knowledge of the age-related decline in female fertility.

Chinese abstract

目的：由于高要求的职业和大学课程, 医学生代表了非自愿无子女的高危险群体。本研究的目的是调查塞尔维亚医学生对将来为人父母的态度及其对生育问题的认识。

方法：横断面研究贝尔格莱德医学院, 塞尔维亚大学, 2016年12月12日到16日大四学生。通过匿名收集一份有56项的有效问卷获取数据, 并翻译成塞尔维亚语。参与率为87.1%。结果：超过95%的学生, 不论性别, 都希望将来有孩子；大多数认为他们想要3个孩子。男女等比率的认为孩子很重要。如果面临不孕不育, 女性认为IVF治疗或领养孩子的可能性显著增高（P＝0.001）。所有的学生都想在35岁之前拥有他们第一个孩子。女性生育随着年龄下降的知识并不令人满意。当女性觉得自己足够成熟, 处于一个稳定关系, 经济上安全, 已经完成了她们的研究, 要孩子并不是大龄, 可以获得儿童保育, 这个时候她们觉得孩子更重要, 这些前提均获得男女的高度认可。

结论：塞尔维亚医学生对将来为人父母有很高的价值观和积极的看法。然而, 由于他们缺乏对女性生育率随着年龄下降的认知, 因此还需要对他们进行适当的教育。

Keywords:

• fertility awareness
• infertility
• medical students
• parenthood
• Serbia

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Claudia Lampic, leader of the Swedish study, for her support.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education and Science, Serbia, through contract no. 175042 (2011-2014).