Zdrowie reprodukcyjne kobiet – analiza poziomu wiedzy młodych studiujących kobiet w zakresie problematyki prokreacji

The main purpose of the article is to establish the level of knowledge about fertility among female students of the University of Zielona Góra. The presented analyses used part of the empirical material from the project “The role of fertility assumptions in the formation of procreative intentions” carried out on a representative sample of full-time female students of the University of Zielona Góra. The respondents have the highest level of fertility knowledge related to changes in women’s reproductive abilities with age. However, it should be noted that their awareness in this aspect is rather medium. For the most part, they correctly identify the age at which the woman is most fertile and the age at which her ability to conceive is significantly reduced. However, the vast majority of respondents are convinced that the process of reducing the ability of women to become pregnant begins later than in reality. As for the other two dimensions of fertility knowledge – the dimension related to estimating the chances of getting pregnant and the dimension related to infertility – the women are characterised by their low or average level. Most of the respondents overestimate the chances of pregnancy of a young woman (up to 25 years old), who had unprotected intercourse at the time of ovulation and a woman who, aged 25–30, had unprotected intercourse regularly during a period of one year. More than half of female students are aware of the scale of infertility in Poland, but at the same time most of them overestimate the effectiveness of in vitro fertilisation. The results obtained are similar to those obtained by researchers from other countries. Therefore, it is necessary to postulate including to the educational program the knowledge about the specificity of the human body, which is characterised by limited ability to conceive a child and changes in the fertility level of women appearing with age.