Research suggests that men and women differ in their psychological responses to infertility Samaira Malik, from the Institute of Work, Health, and Organizations at the University of Nottingham, UK, said, "men are in fact equally affected by the unfulfilled desire for a child but are less open about their feelings."
Men undergo various battles when facing personal infertility. These battles include anxiety concerning potency, masculinity, and sexual adequacy. Dr. Rheta Keylor of the Massachusetts Institute for Psychoanalysis stated that, male infertility is an "assault on a man's sense of self revives feelings of competition, castration, and experiences of developmental trauma." Studies concerning such effects on infertile males are few in number and have come to the forefront in the past decade starting in 2001. In the Psychoanalytic Electronic Publishing archives of the seven primary psychoanalytic journals from 1927 to 2000, not a single article on male infertility appears. Paradoxically, the male partner is either the sole cause or a contributing cause of infertility in 49% of couples. Throughout history men have recognized the desire for paternity and the possibility for male infertility; however, women are typically the subject of fertility studies.
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