Exploring Lifestyle and Fertility Knowledge: A Comparative Study of Fertile and Infertile Women

<b>Background: </b>Infertility is a widespread problem that has significant impacts on individuals, families, and society. It's known that low fertility awareness and lack of knowledge about lifestyle factors affect fertility.<br /> <b>Aim: </b>To compare fertility awareness and healthy lifestyle practices among women with and without infertility.<br /> <b>Methods: </b>Data were collected from 172 infertile and fertile women who received care at the Infertility Unit and the Antenatal Care Unit of a hospital in Turkey between November 2022 and January 2023. The study data were obtained using the Healthy Lifestyle Behavior Scale and Fertility Awareness Scale.<br /> <b>Results: </b>Although there were variations between infertile and fertile women in characteristics such as marriage duration, frequency of exercise, smoking habits, history of depression and caffeine intake, these differences were not statistically significant. But, fertile women had a more positive lifestyle in terms of nutrition (<i>p</i><0.001). Additionally, fertile women had a higher fertility awareness than the infertile women. The main factor affecting fertility awareness in these women was cognitive and somatic awareness (<i>p</i><0.001).<br /> <b>Conclusions: </b>There are distinct differences in healthy lifestyle behaviors and fertility awareness between fertile and infertile women.