Table II.
Categories and descriptors from each of the 14 studies citing reasons.
| Category | Study descriptors |
|---|---|
| A. Psychological burden of treatment | Can not stand it; emotional distress; emotional stress; psychological; psychological burden; psychological reasons; too anxious or depressed to continue; too much stress |
| B. Physical burden of treatment | Could not stand all the injections; could not stand side effects of medication; physical burden; physical discomfort; poor tolerance to physical side of treatment; retrieval too painful; side effects from treatment; treatment too aggressive for partner |
| C. Physical and Psychological burden of treatment | Both psychological and physical burden stress; physical or psychological burden of treatment; psychological stress or physical burden |
| D. Clinic related issues | Clinic reason; insufficient or poorly formulated explanations about healthcare or fertility problem; poor management of psychological aspects |
| E. Organizational problems | Language problems; therapeutic programme difficult to integrate with work |
| F. Relational problems | Divorce; infertility taking too much of a toll on our relationship; marital problems subsequent to start of treatment; relational problems; relational problems/divorce; relationship; separated; separated/divorced; separation of couple |
| G. Marital or personal problems | Marital or personal problems |
| H. Rejection of treatment | Ethical objections to ICSI treatment after failed IVF treatment; fear of abnormal child; fear of complications; getting nervous about possible long-term effects of treatment; not interested in treatment; reject treatment in general; rejected IVF treatment |
| I. No faith in treatment success | Already given IVF my best chance; just gave up; no faith in treatment; not meant to be |
| J. Poor prognosis | Age (women); medical futility; poor prognosis; problem with semen quality; problem with the menstrual cycle; too old |
| K. Logistic/practical reasons | Distance to clinic; it was too difficult to get to IVF centre so often; move; moved; moved away; moved out of state; moved to another district; partner away at present; problem with sperm donor |
| L. Personal reasons | Identifiable social reasons; personal; personal; personal life circumstances (i.e. moving, death in family, return to school) |
| M. Adoption | Adopted; adoption; decided to pursue adoption or third-party conception; planned to adopt |
| N. Other parenting options | Pursuing alternative therapy; trying on own |
| O. Abandonment of childwish | Abandoned child wish; change in priorities; do not want children anymore; partner abandoned child wish |
| P. Postponement of treatment | Decision to postpone further treatment; needing to take a break from treatment |
| Q. Postponement of treatment or unknown | Postponement or unknown |
| R. Doctor censoring | Active censuring; active censuring (failure to correct overweight status); active censuring (failure to correct underweight status); active censuring (medical reasons); active censuring (medical); active censuring (poor embryo quality); active censuring (poor response, poor fertilization, poor response with poor fertilization, overweight with BMI > 30 kg/m2, hypertension or improved semen quality not requiring ICSI any more); active censuring (poor response/signs of ovarian aging); advised by their physician to stop; no potential treatment; physician reason; poor prognosis (doctor's refusal) |
| S. Financial issues | Financial; financial concern; financial concerns; financial problems; lost insurance coverage; other (subjects listed cost of medication and donor sperm) |
| T. Health problems | Additional health problems; health problems (one of the partners); illness or operation needed; partner deceased |
| U. Other medical treatment | ART (going to IVF); ART (IVF performed); other medical treatment; other treatment; went to different IVF program |
| V. Went to other clinics | Changed IVF centres; changed medical teams to other clinic (in other city or private care); continuation of treatment elsewhere; referred to other provider; treatment elsewhere |
| W. Other/unknown/not reported | Gave no reason; loss to follow-up; lost to follow-up; no specific reason; other reasons; patients not contacted; unknown; unknown reasons |
| X. Non-classifiable | Decided to stop treatment; medical reasons; need for using sperm donor |