Abstract
BackgroundBecause the primary aim of infertility treatment is to achieve pregnancy, mental health care during this treatment is often neglected. However, the inability to conceive children is stressful for couples throughout the world. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate factors related to the anxiety and depression of female infertility patients.MethodsParticipants included 83 Japanese women who initially visited the Reproduction Center of the Tokyo Dental College Ichikawa General Hospital to undergo testing and receive infertility treatment between February and April 2008. We administered two psychological tests, the Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS) test and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) test. We then examined the association of the test results with age, pregnancy and delivery history, employment status, duration of infertility, infertility treatment history, and male infertility.ResultsAs patient age increased, total HADS and depression scores also increased. No correlation was observed between duration of infertility and SDS or HADS scores. Results were similar when the presence and absence of delivery history was compared. Patients who underwent infertility treatment were more likely to have high HADS depression scores compared to patients who had not undergone treatment. Additionally, patients whose husbands were infertile had significantly lower total HADS and anxiety scores than those whose husbands were not infertile.ConclusionsAge and male infertility are factors that influence the presence of anxiety and depression in female infertility patients.
Highlights
Because the primary aim of infertility treatment is to achieve pregnancy, mental health care during this treatment is often neglected
All women replied to both psychological tests
Domar et al reported that anxiety levels are the highest in the second and third year of infertility and that these levels decrease after six years [10]
Summary
Because the primary aim of infertility treatment is to achieve pregnancy, mental health care during this treatment is often neglected. The inability to conceive children is stressful for couples throughout the world. The purpose of this study was to investigate factors related to the anxiety and depression of female infertility patients. Infertility is defined as the inability to conceive after having unprotected intercourse for one year. Couples realize they are infertile only after attempting to become pregnant for some time. The rate of infertility is high, at approximately 10%, and in many cases the cause is unclear. Anxiety and depression, resulting from infertility may be due to various factors, including uncertainty of the cause of infertility, Women appear to have a higher rate of infertilityrelated stress than men [7,8]. Studies have found that greater than half of the women receiving infertility treatment feel that infertility is the “most stressful experience of their lives” [7,9]
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