Purpose: To explore the characteristics of the use of laughs and jokes during doctor-couple assisted reproductive technology (ART) visits.

Methods: 75 videotaped doctor-couple ART visits were analyzed and transcribed in order to: (1) quantify laugh and jokes, describing the contribution of doctors and couples and identifying the timing of appearance; (2) explore the topic of laughs and jokes with qualitative thematic analysis.

Results: On average, each visit contained 17.1 utterances of laughs and jokes. Patients contributed for 64.7% of utterances recorded. Doctor (40.6%) and women (40%) introduced the majority of laughs and jokes. Visits with female physicians had significantly more laughs and jokes than visits with male doctors; no differences were found considering physicians’ age and years of experience, cause of infertility, and prognosis. Laughs and jokes were mainly recorded during history taking and information giving. Four core themes were identified, regarding the topic of laughs and jokes: health status, infertility treatment, organizational aspects, and doctor-patient interaction.

Conclusion: Laughs and jokes are common in doctor-couple ART visits and are frequently used during the dialogue, covering a wide range of topics. Results seem to show that laughs and jokes are related to doctor’s personal characteristics (like gender), while are not associated with infertility aspects. Given the complexity of this communicative category, further studies are needed to explore the functions and the effects of laugh and jokes.

目的： 探索在医生夫妇辅助的生殖技术（ART）访问期间使用笑和笑的特征。

方法：分析和转录了75幅录像带的医生夫妇ART访问记录，以便：（1）量化笑声和笑话，描述医生和夫妇的贡献并确定出诊时间；（2）通过定性主题分析探讨笑话主题。

结果：平均而言，每次访问都包含17.1则笑话。患者贡献了所记录话语的64.7％。医生（40.6％）和妇女（40％）介绍了大多数笑和笑话。与男医生的来访相比，女医生的来访笑声和笑话要多得多。考虑到医生的年龄和经验，不孕原因和预后，没有发现差异。笑声和笑话主要记录在历史记录和信息发布过程中。确定了四个核心主题，涉及笑和笑的主题：健康状况，不育治疗，组织方面以及医患互动。

结论：笑和笑话在医生夫妇进行的ART访问中很常见，并且在对话中经常使用，涉及广泛的话题。结果似乎表明笑和笑与医生的个人特征（如性别）有关，而与不孕症无关。鉴于这一交流类别的复杂性，需要进一步研究以探讨笑声和笑话的功能和效果。