Emotional problems among couples treated for infertility

Abstract

Introduction. Infertility is a specific disease, which always concerns two young people during their most active life. Inability to realize one of the most important desires of every human being — to have a child — has a strong influence on the psycho-emotional steam. The desire to have children is usually so great that often dominates over all other concerns and ambitions in life.
Material and methods. The study was conducted in the years 2009/2010 in the group of 110 people treated for infertility in Lublin. Proprietary research tool was a questionnaire and Beck Depression Inventory. The results were statistically analyzed based on computer software STATISTICA 8.0 (StatSoft, Poland).
Results. No symptoms of depression were found in 78.18% of the respondents, and the cause of infertility in most subjects remained unknown (51.82%). Studies have shown that depressive symptoms were more common among respondents who had problems getting pregnant for over 5 years. Couples during infertility treatment had emotional (53.64%) and financial (49.09%) problems. In 61.82% of respondents agreed that infertility treatment strengthened the marital relationship and sexual life has not changed (69.91%).
Conclusions. Affective disorders are more common in those dissatisfied with sexual intercourse, and infertility treatment which lasts for over 5 years. Symptoms of depression were among the respondents who admitted that the treatment of infertility has made their sex life mechanical.