Background: Infertility is a serious problem for those who suffer. Some of the risks for infertility are preventable\r\nand the individual should therefore have knowledge of them. The purposes of this study were to investigate highschool\r\nstudentsâ�� knowledge about fertility, plans for family building and to compare views and knowledge\r\nbetween female and male students.\r\nMethods: A questionnaire containing 34 items was answered by 274 students. Answers from male and female\r\nstudents were compared using studentâ��s t-test for normally distributed variables and Mann-Whitney U-test for nonnormal\r\ndistributions. The chi-square test was used to compare proportions of male and female students who\r\nanswered questions on nominal and ordinal scales. Differences were considered as statistically significant at a pvalue\r\nof 0.05.\r\nResults: Analyses showed that 234 (85%) intended to have children. Female students felt parenthood to be\r\nsignificantly more important than male students: p = <0.01. The mean age at which the respondents thought they\r\nwould like to start to build their family was 26 (�± 2.9) years. Men believed that womenâ��s fertility declined\r\nsignificantly later than women did: p = <0.01. Women answered that 30.7% couples were involuntarily infertile and\r\nmen answered 22.5%: p = <0.01. Females thought it significantly more likely that they would consider IVF or\r\nadoption than men, p = 0.01. Men felt they were more likely to abstain from having children than women: p =\r\n<0.01. Women believed that body weight influenced fertility significantly more often than men: p = <0.01 and\r\nmen believed significantly more often that smoking influenced fertility: p = 0.03. Both female and male students\r\nanswered that they would like to have more knowledge about the area of fertility.\r\nConclusions: Young people plan to start their families when the womanâ��s fertility is already in decline. Improving\r\nyoung peopleâ��s knowledge about these issues would give them more opportunity to take responsibility for their\r\nsexual health and to take an active role in shaping political change to improve conditions for earlier parenthood.
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