Analysis of online discussion boards for male infertility

Abstract

We aimed to identify what information patients and partners are seeking on male infertility forums. Online discussion boards were identified. Posts were analysed in three steps: open coding, axial coding and selective coding, to determine common themes. A total of 1,118 posts were analysed. The majority of posts (20.2%) were related to "Questions about male fertility diagnosis and testing", with 47.8% asking for assistance interpreting semen analysis results. About 15.7% of posts were about "Feelings associated with male infertility", with 26.7% expressing anger or frustration, 26.1% encouraging hope, 21% seeking hope and 12.5% expressing fear. About 15.4% of posts were about "Lifestyle factors to improve male fertility", 24.4% of which were about vitamins and 6.4% about intercourse timing. About 15.4% of posts were about "Male infertility conditions", with 43% about semen parameters. Other themes included "Questions about male factor treatments", "Questions about assisted reproductive technologies (ART)", "Relationship issues", "Asking for advice", "Financial concerns" and "Information sharing". About 63.6% of posts were written by female partners [t(1,117) = 9.451, p < .001]. The most common posts posed questions about male fertility diagnosis and testing. Users discussed feelings involved in infertility, and counselling should be integrated. About 63.6% of posts were by partners, highlighting the importance of partners having access to infertility information. K E Y W O R D S discussion boards, male infertility, online

Understanding Patient Anxieties in the Social Media Era: Qualitative Analysis and Natural Language Processing of an Online Male Infertility Community

“…This discrepancy may be at least partially explained by differences in the proportion of women to men authoring the analyzed posts. Compared with over 60% of the posts authored by women in the study by Beeder et al [12], this study had fewer than 30% of the posts authored by women where gender could be identified. We found that discussants also frequently used this forum to connect with others to address these aforementioned feelings of isolation, thereby creating an opportunity for discussants to normalize each other's experiences [34][35][36].…”

“…This theme, however, was featured in only 16% of the posts, compared with 72% of the posts in our analysis. Feelings of inadequacy were identified in less than 1% of the posts in the study by Beeder et al [12]. This discrepancy may be at least partially explained by differences in the proportion of women to men authoring the analyzed posts.…”

“…Subthemes involving feelings of emasculation and isolation permeated through the majority of posts we analyzed, supporting the idea that for at least a subset of men, the ability to conceive a child may be tied to their senses of masculinity and self-worth. It is interesting to note that Beeder et al [12], who also performed a content analysis of a different group of online discussions on male factor infertility, observed a similar theme: Feelings associated with male infertility. This theme, however, was featured in only 16% of the posts, compared with 72% of the posts in our analysis.…”

“…Despite the high prevalence of male factor infertility [6], a disproportionate number of infertility investigations focus exclusively on women [7]. Similarly, most of the published data on infertility and the internet address only the experience of women [8][9][10][11]; only one recently published study [12] focuses exclusively on internet discussions on male factor infertility. Online discussion boards afford discussants with anonymity, allowing for productive conversations related to traditionally private or taboo topics.…”

Deservingness for "Family 500 +" Benefit in Poland: Qualitative Study of Internet Debates

“…Moreover ODs have numerous advantages: almost unlimited amount of material for analysis, low cost of data acquisition, lack of research interfering and hence no impact on expression of thoughts, growing number of Internet users etc.. All these make Internet forums to provide text material for many kinds of social scientific analysis (Holtz et al, 2012;Im & Chee, 2006;Shanks et al, 2014). The potential of online discussion has been used so far to study for example: tax issues of Uber drivers (Ring & Oei, 2016), male infertility (Beeder & Samplaski, 2019), autism (Jordan & Caldwell-Harris, 2012), self-reported depression (Hausner et al, 2008), warning signs for suicide (McSwain et al, 2012), financial investments (Tumarkin and Whitelaw 2001), addictions (Barratt 2011; Soussan and Kjellgren 2015), weight loss (Hwang et al, 2007) and chronic diseases (Seale et al, 2010) etc.. This article represents the first attempt to analyse online forums to assess attitude towards welfare deservingness, that I know of its existence.…”