Background Infertility is a very distressing condition. It is often associated with long-term stress, which can emerge as anxiety and depression. Aim To understand the effect of socio-demographic variables, reproductive trajectories, and lifestyle variables on stress, depression, and anxiety independently and to understand the relationship of psychological variables with each other among infertile and fertile women. Methods This cross-sectional study recruited 500 women which included 250 primary infertile cases and 250 age-matched fertile controls of the age group 22–35 years. A pretested modified interview schedule was administered which included demographic variables, lifestyle variables, and reproductive trajectories. In addition, psychological tools like PSS, GAD-7, and PHQ-9 were used to collect the data pertaining to Stress, anxiety, and depression, respectively. Data analysis was performed with the statistical software version SPSS, IBM version 24. Results Infertile women are more prone to various psychological disorder (stress, anxiety and depression). None of the demographic and lifestyle variables were associated with stress, anxiety, and depression among infertile women. Only reproductive trajectories were found to be causing stress, anxiety, and depression respectively among infertile women. In addition, stress is leading to both anxiety and depression among infertile women but only to depression in fertile women. Conclusion Infertile women should be counselled by medical experts regarding reproductive trajectories. Infertile couples should be guided and counselled to incorporate mental health screening and treatment in their routine check-up.
For women who are trying to conceive, it is critical to assess their general knowledge regarding fertility and fertility-awareness practices to identify the fertile window and their agency to achieve pregnancy. The couple’s ability to deal with the infertility issue may be influenced by their beliefs and attitudes concerning infertility, which are based on social and cultural influences as well as their inner aspirations. As a result, it’s critical to examine infertile and fertile woman’s general knowledge of reproduction and infertility risk factors. It’s also crucial to learn about women’s attitudes toward infertility (social beliefs), as well as the repercussions of infertility and the practises they employ to avoid it. The present study includes 250 fertile and 250 infertile women. Data collection for infertile women was done from the Gynecology Outpatient Department (OPD). Participants from both groups i.e., infertile and fertile women have little knowledge about infertility but, infertile women have significantly higher knowledge than fertile women. Knowledge of the fertile period, as well as several potential causes of infertility, were found to be significantly higher in women with infertility problem rather than fertile women, indicating that the knowledge they have acquired is not attributable to education system, but rather to their experience gained during visits to medical practitioners. In addition to differences with respect to knowledge, infertile and fertile women differed in terms of both attitude (societal beliefs and social consequences of infertility) and practices. Better knowledge regarding infertility is likely to bring positive notes among women with infertility problems. Which will further improve the attitude and practices of society towards infertile women. Therefore, its crucial to introduce reproductive health education at high school or undergraduate level, to assist women in avoiding infertility and to help infertile women develop healthier attitudes regarding infertility treatment and coping techniques.
The present study assessed the relationship between primary infertility and obesity in women of Delhi, India, independently, and in light of various demographic trait, lifestyle and reproductive variables. The present study was a part of a major project funded by the National Commission for Women of India, Government of India. The data were collected from 334 women, including 167 fertile and 167 infertile individuals. A two-part pretested modified quantitative interview schedule was used to collect data. The first part of the interview schedule included demographic traits, reproductive profile and lifestyle variables. The second part consisted of anthropometric measurements for BMI which were taken using an anthropometric rod (height) and digital weighing scale (weight). All the data were analysed through SPSS 22.0. The results revealed a higher prevalence of obesity and underweight among infertile women. There is a clear-cut indication that usual risk factors of obesity like physical inactivity, increasing age, higher age at marriage, and infertility-related biological issues seem to be promoting obesity in combination with infertility. Public health education is needed to increase awareness about the age at marriage. As physical inactivity leads to obesity among infertile women, counselling, awareness raising or improvement of lifestyle factors should be considered in the infertility treatment protocol.
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