Men without children are more likely to suffer depression about the issue than their female counterparts.

British researchers found that men are almost as likely as women to want children, and they feel more isolated, depressed, angry and sad than women if they don't have them.

Childless women were more likely to cite personal desire and biological urge as major influences, compared to men. Men were more likely to cite cultural, societal and family pressures than were women.

Robin Hadley, of Keele University, found that 59 percent of men and 63 percent of women said they wanted children.

Of the men who wanted children, half had experienced isolation because they did not have any children, compared with 27 percent of women.

Thirty-eight percent of men had experienced depression because they did not have any children, compared with only 27 percent of women.

One in four men had experienced anger because they did not have any children, compared with 18 percent of women, while 56 percent of men had experienced sadness because they did not have any children, compared with 43 percent of women.

However, no men had experienced guilt because they did not have any children although 16 percent of women had.

Mr Hadley said: 'My work shows that there was a similar level of desire for parenthood among childless men and women in the survey, and that men had higher levels of anger, depression, sadness, jealousy and isolation than women.

'This challenges the common idea that women are much more likely to want to have children than men, and that they consistently experience a range of negative emotions more deeply than men if they don't have children.'

He carried out his survey of 27 men and 81 women who were not parents using an online questionnaire among people aged 20 to 66, with an average age of 41.