Psychological impact and coping strategies among women with infertility - A hospital based cross sectional study

Background: Infertility rates were highest in women living in urban areas and increases proportionately with level of education. The social consequences due to infertility affect the women more often. It is necessary to identify and treat the amount of stress and various coping methods by infertile women population. We have evaluated psychological impact of infertility and coping strategies employed in women population attending infertility OPD at department of obstetrics in a tertiary care teaching hospital in Tamil Nadu. Material and methods: This was a hospital based cross sectional study done in 150 women attending infertility OPD at a tertiary care hospital in Tamil Nadu for a period of 12 months from January 2014 to December 2014. A structured and validated proforma was designed for the purpose of data collection. The tool was validated by including the inputs from five experts in the subject area. Categorical variables were presented as frequencies and percentages. Quantitative variables were presented as mean and standard deviation. IBM SPSS version 21 was used for statistical analysis. Results: Majority of the study subjects belonged to 21 to 25 years of age group 35.7% and 45.5% of the women had recent onset infertility. 17% women had difficulty in falling asleep was reported. 58.9% of the women reported with high levels of anxiety. 26% women have decrease in weight was noticed. Whereas 48.2% women reported feeling guilt and 35.7% women reported feeling of pessimism and suicidal tendency.16.28% women participants reported to have immersing in household activities followed by 13.95% with hobbies and 11.63% with crying spells. Conclusion: Our study revealed that infertile women experienced high levels of anxiety, guilt, feeling of pessimism and suicidal tendency. The coping strategy adopted by majority of the women was engaging in household activities and hobbies. There should be parallel psychological counselling should be advocated strongly to all women with infertility taking treatment along with family members.