Attitudes Of Turkish AndIranian People Towards EggDonation

Introduction: We conducted two seperate descriptive studies in order to reveal the General attitudes of Turkish and Iranian people toward various aspects of oocyte donation (OD). Materials and Methods: The first Study was carried out in two seperate districts of the city of Antalya, Turkey. 400 particioants were chosen by dluster sampling method. The questionnaires were performed by 4th year medical students face to face with the participants. The second study was conducted in Isfahan city, Iran. Two hundred adults (Christians, n=100; Muslims, n=100) were asked to fill out the questionnaires. Results: The Turkish participants consisted of 232 women and 168 men. 64.75% were married, 5% were divorced. 63.75% had children, 15(3.75%) had infertility problems, 263(65.75)% were graduates of high school or university. Approval of egg donation was high in this study sample. Only 61 (15.25%) respondents showed complete objection againts egg donation and more men were in favor. Less than half of the participants think that their religion would prevent egg donation if they need it. More than half of the participants would prefer the use of egg donation treatment rather than adopting a child. For the Iranian participants, 53% of Christians and 69% of Muslims were married. The vast majority of the subjects had formal education; only 3 of the participants were illiterate. Only one-third had complete objection toward OD program. 68% and 43% of the Christians and Muslims were unaware of their religious attitudes on OD, respectively. Most of participants believed in informing the general public about OD in mass media. In addition, nearly half of the participants were in favor of OD over adopting a child. Psychological counseling was recommended by majority of respondents for both donor and the recipient of the eggs. Discussion: These two studies reveal the first data on the attitudes towards OD from countries whose population is mainly muslim. The most important conclusion is the fact that most of the participants do not have any objection against egg donation treatments. However, the vast majority did not know for whom the OD program is suitable. Therefore, the mass media should develop programs for informing the general public regarding the OD treatment program.