Effectiveness of Hatha Yoga on Stress among Women Seeking Treatment for Infertility

Stress is a major problem that human experience in day to day life. Stress is a common problem of women to have trouble in conceiving. Stress can also interfere with a women's menstrual cycle and delay in ovulation. Hatha yoga helps to decrease the stress among women. Objectives: To evaluate the effectiveness of Hatha yoga on stress among women seeking treatment for infertility. Design: One group pre test post test only design. Setting: Rajeev Hospital, Madurai. Participants: 30 women fulfilling the inclusion criteria. Methods: 30 women were selected by non-probability convenient sampling technique. Level of stress was measured by Cohen perceived stress scale. Results: In pre test none of them have normal, the majority of 20 (67%) have high stress and 10(33%) have average stress, But in post test none of them have high stress 20 (67%) of them have average stress and 10(33%) have normal. This shows that level of stress was decreased from pre test to post test. The mean post test level of stress is 13(SD±3.9) was significantly lower than the mean pre test level of stress, 22(SD±4.5). The paired “t' value of level of stress was 8.59 (table value=2.05) which is significant at p<0.05 level. Conclusion: Hatha Yoga was effective to reduce the stress among women seeking treatment for infertility. Clinical applications: Hatha yoga can be given for all women to reduce the level of stress, anxiety, fear and depression.