Masculinity, Mental Health, and Desire for Social Support Among Male Cancer and Infertility Patients

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Abstract

By surveying men who are currently infertile ( N = 251) and men who are potentially infertile (i.e., men with cancer; N = 195), the mental health consequences of reproductive masculinity, or the cultural assumption that men are virile and should be fathers, were investigated. There was no difference in depression levels between these two groups when controlling for demographic variables, suggesting that both groups of men have similar mental health needs. Since gendered notions of masculinity also suggest that men do not want to discuss their fertility health, their desire for online fertility-related social support was assessed. These findings suggest that most men do want to talk to others about fertility, which indicates that there is a need for more fertility-related social support. This research challenges some conceptions regarding masculinity, as men revealed an interest in accessing online social support related to fertility.

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Trends of male factor infertility, an important cause of infertility: A review of literature

NAINA KUMAR, Amit Singh (2015)

Infertility and problems of impaired fecundity have been a concern through ages and is also a significant clinical problem today, which affects 8–12% of couples worldwide. Of all infertility cases, approximately 40–50% is due to “male factor” infertility and as many as 2% of all men will exhibit suboptimal sperm parameters. It may be one or a combination of low sperm concentration, poor sperm motility, or abnormal morphology. The rates of infertility in less industrialized nations are markedly higher and infectious diseases are responsible for a greater proportion of infertility. The present literature will help in knowing the trends of male factor infertility in developing nations like India and to find out in future, various factors that may be responsible for male infertility.

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The gender gap in suicide and premature death or: why are men so vulnerable?

A. Christina Møller (2003)

Suicide and premature death due to coronary heart disease, violence, accidents, drug or alcohol abuse are strikingly male phenomena, particularly in the young and middle-aged groups. Rates of offending behaviour, conduct disorders, suicide and depression are even rising, and give evidence to a high gender-related vulnerability of young men. In explaining this vulnerability, the gender perspective offers an analytical tool to integrate structural and cultural factors. It is shown that traditional masculinity is a key risk factor for male vulnerability promoting maladaptive coping strategies such as emotional unexpressiveness, reluctance to seek help, or alcohol abuse. This basic male disposition is shown to increase psychosocial stress due to different societal conditions: to changes in male gender-role, to postmodern individualism and to rapid social change in Eastern Europe and Russia. Relying on empirical data and theoretical explanations, a gender model of male vulnerability is proposed. It is concluded that the gender gap in suicide and premature death can most likely be explained by perceived reduction in social role opportunities leading to social exclusion.

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The performance of ML, DWLS, and ULS estimation with robust corrections in structural equation models with ordinal variables.

Cheng-Hsien Li (2016)

Three estimation methods with robust corrections-maximum likelihood (ML) using the sample covariance matrix, unweighted least squares (ULS) using a polychoric correlation matrix, and diagonally weighted least squares (DWLS) using a polychoric correlation matrix-have been proposed in the literature, and are considered to be superior to normal theory-based maximum likelihood when observed variables in latent variable models are ordinal. A Monte Carlo simulation study was carried out to compare the performance of ML, DWLS, and ULS in estimating model parameters, and their robust corrections to standard errors, and chi-square statistics in a structural equation model with ordinal observed variables. Eighty-four conditions, characterized by different ordinal observed distribution shapes, numbers of response categories, and sample sizes were investigated. Results reveal that (a) DWLS and ULS yield more accurate factor loading estimates than ML across all conditions; (b) DWLS and ULS produce more accurate interfactor correlation estimates than ML in almost every condition; (c) structural coefficient estimates from DWLS and ULS outperform ML estimates in nearly all asymmetric data conditions; (d) robust standard errors of parameter estimates obtained with robust ML are more accurate than those produced by DWLS and ULS across most conditions; and (e) regarding robust chi-square statistics, robust ML is inferior to DWLS and ULS in controlling for Type I error in almost every condition, unless a large sample is used (N = 1,000). Finally, implications of the findings are discussed, as are the limitations of this study as well as potential directions for future research. (PsycINFO Database Record

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Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Am J Mens Health

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Am J Mens Health

Journal ID (publisher-id): JMH

Journal ID (hwp): spjmh

Title: American Journal of Men's Health

Publisher: SAGE Publications (Sage CA: Los Angeles, CA )

ISSN (Print): 1557-9883

ISSN (Electronic): 1557-9891

Publication date (Electronic): 26 December 2018

Publication date Collection: Jan-Feb 2019

Volume: 13

Issue: 1

Electronic Location Identifier: 1557988318820396

Affiliations

[1 ]Department of Sociology, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada

[2 ]Lady Davis Institute, Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, QC, Canada

[3 ]Department of Sociology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

[4 ]McGill University Health Center, Montreal, QC, Canada

[5 ]Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

[6 ]Mount Sinai Hospital, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

[7 ]Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada

[8 ]Department of Psychiatry, Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, QC, Canada

Author notes

[*]Phyllis Zelkowitz, Jewish General Hospital, 4333 Chemin de la Cote-Ste-Catherine, Montreal, QC H3T 1E4, Canada. Email: phyllis.zelkowitz@ 123456mcgil.ca

[±]

Equal authorship.

Author information

Skye A. Miner https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8848-2440

Article

Publisher ID: 10.1177_1557988318820396

DOI: 10.1177/1557988318820396

PMC ID: 6775564

PubMed ID: 30585112

SO-VID: 1bc7255a-1583-4047-85d8-3537e119fb06

License:

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License ( http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages ( https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

History

Date received : 12 September 2018

Date revision received : 12 November 2018

Date accepted : 16 November 2018

Funding

Funded by: Canadian Institute for Health Research, ;

Award ID: #TE1-138296

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cover-date January-February 2019

Keywords: infertility,cancer,masculinity,mental health,social support

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Keywords: infertility, cancer, masculinity, mental health, social support

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Masculinity, Mental Health, and Desire for Social Support Among Male Cancer and Infertility Patients

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Stigmatisation of mental illnesses

Most cited references 35

Trends of male factor infertility, an important cause of infertility: A review of literature

The gender gap in suicide and premature death or: why are men so vulnerable?

The performance of ML, DWLS, and ULS estimation with robust corrections in structural equation models with ordinal variables.

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