hello ladies, can anyone persuade their OH to help with the research below??
PCOS may be a female disorder but its effects aren't just felt by women - it can have a significant impact on their male partners too. Men may not suffer directly with the menstrual abnormalities, the acne, the unwanted hair, the ongoing weight battles or the thinning scalp hair but they often have to weather the storm of their partner's fluctuating hormones, they may have to ride the emotional rollercoaster of trying and failing to conceive, and they may struggle to come to terms with their absolute powerlessness to fix the problems arising from PCOS. However, the truth is that we just don't know what men's experiences are as no research has ever been done into how men are affected by, or cope with, their partners' PCOS. This study seeks to plug that gap in our knowledge. We want to conduct face-to-face conversational-type interviews with male partners of women diagnosed with PCOS to try to discover how men perceive the impact of PCOS on their lives. It is up to the person being interviewed to decide how much they are comfortable disclosing – it’s a chat rather than an interrogation. The interviews can take place at home or in any public place that is convenient provided it is not too noisy as the interviews will be digitally recorded and then transcribed into print to enable them to be analysed. During transcription, all data will be made completely anonymous so participants can speak freely without worrying about being identified.
If you have a male partner who would be interested in participating in this study, please contact (or ask them to contact) Christianne Tipping on c.tipping@lancaster.ac.uk or on telephone number 01335 300222 as soon as possible to receive more information. Due to time constraints, preference will be given to potential participants based in Derbyshire, Staffordshire, Cheshire and Shropshire or in Nottingham, Leicester and Birmingham.