Prevalence and predictors of infertility-specific stress in women diagnosed with primary infertility: A clinic-based study.
BACKGROUND
According to the existing literature on infertility, stress appears to be inevitably associated with infertility diagnosis and treatment in sub-fertile individuals. The epidemiological data on the prevalence and predictors of infertility-specific stress in cultural specific scenario are scarce. The objective of the present study was to estimate the prevalence of infertility-specific stress and identify predictors of infertility-specific stress in women diagnosed with primary infertility.


METHODS
This cross-sectional study was conducted on 300 infertile married women, diagnosed with primary infertility. The tools used for the assessment were "semi-structured questionnaire" compiled by the authors, "ICD-10 Classification of Mental and Behavioral Disorders (Clinical Descriptions and Diagnostic Guidelines)," and "Psychological Evaluation Test for infertility."


METHODS
Data were analyzed using SPSS (version 15). Chi-square test was used for univariate analysis followed by multiple logistic regressions between stress and the predictor variables.


CONCLUSIONS
The prevalence of stress among women was 80%. Univariate analysis revealed that predictors of stress were years of marital life, duration of infertility, infertility type, history of gynecological surgery, cycles of ovulation induction with timed intercourse and intra-uterine inseminations, present and past psychiatric morbidity, coping difficulties, gynecological diagnosis, and severity of premenstrual dysphoria. Multivariate analysis showed leading associations of stress with infertility type and coping difficulties.
Department of Psychiatry, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal University, Manipal, Karnataka, India.
Ansha
A
Patel
Department of Psychiatry, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal University, Manipal, Karnataka, India.
P S V N
PS
Sharma
Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Manipal Assisted Reproductive Centre, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal University, Manipal, Karnataka, India.
Pratapkumar
P
Narayan
Department of Statistics, Manipal University, Manipal, Karnataka, India.
V S
VS
Binu
Department of Clinical Psychology, School of Allied Health Sciences, Manipal University, Manipal, Karnataka, India.
N
N
Dinesh
Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal University, Manipal, Karnataka, India.
Praveena Joglekar
PJ
Pai
Infertility-specific stress; predictors; prevalence; primary infertility; women