LETTER
Depression and Anxiety in Pathways of Medically Assisted Reproduction: The Role of Infertility Stress Dimensions
Andrea Pozza1, *, Davide Dèttore1, Maria Elisabetta Coccia2
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2019Volume: 15
First Page: 101
Last Page: 109
Publisher ID: CPEMH-15-101
DOI: 10.2174/1745017901915010101
Article History:
Received Date: 24/07/2019Revision Received Date: 04/08/2019
Acceptance Date: 05/08/2019
Electronic publication date: 30/08/2019
Collection year: 2019
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode). This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Background:
Depressive and anxious symptoms are common psychological reactions to infertility and Medically Assisted Reproduction (MAR). No study compared depressive and anxious symptoms and infertility stress dimensions across homologous and heterologous MAR, nor explored the specific role of the infertility stress dimensions in the two pathways. Homologous MAR may be associated with higher distress as the couple feel that the responsibility to reproduce and carry on the family line falls on them, and they feel inadequate if they are unable to bear children.
Objective:
We compared depressive/anxious symptoms and infertility stress dimensions between individuals undergoing homologous and heterologous MAR. We also explored the association between the infertility stress dimensions and depressive/anxious symptoms separately in two MAR pathways.
Methods:
Two-hundred twenty-six individuals participated [mean age = 39.71 years; 54.45% women]: 118 (52.2%) in homologous and 108 (47.8%) in heterologous MAR. The Fertility Problem Inventory, Beck Depression Inventory-II, and State and Trait Anxiety Inventory-Y form were administered.
Results:
Individuals in homologous MAR had higher depressive/state-trait anxious symptoms, general infertility stress, and infertility-related sexual concerns than those in heterologous MAR. In homologous MAR, social and sexual concerns were associated with depressive/trait anxious symptoms while gender had no effect. In heterologous MAR, male gender was associated with lower state anxious symptoms while infertility stress dimensions had no effect.
Conclusion:
Individuals in homologous MAR are a more distressed subgroup which requires a tailored supportive psychological intervention specifically on sexual and social concerns.
