Effectiveness of Counseling for Infertile Couples on Women's Emotional Disturbance: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Abstract

Objective The psychosocial burden of infertility among couples can be one of the most important reasons for women's emotional disturbance. The goal of the present study was to investigate the effect of counseling on different emotional aspects of infertile women. Methods The present randomized clinical trial was performed on 60 couples with primary infertility who were referred for treatment for the first time and did not receive psychiatric or psychological treatment. Samples were allocated to an intervention group (30 couples) and a control group (30 couples) by simple randomization. The intervention group received infertility counseling for 6 45-minute sessions twice a week, and the control group received routine care. The Screening on Distress in Fertility Treatment (SCREENIVF) questionnaire was completed before and after the intervention. Samples were collected from November to December 2016 for 3 months. For the data analysis, we used the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, United States) software, version 19.0, and the paired t-test, the independent t-test, the Mann-Whitney test, the Wilcoxon test, and the Chi-squared test. Results The mean age of the participants was 33.39 ± 5.67 years. All studied couples had primary infertility and no children. The mean duration of the couples' infertility was 3 years. There was a significant difference regarding depression (1.55 ± 1.92; p < 0.0001), social support (15.73 ± 3.41; p < 0.0001), and cognitions regarding domains of fertility problems (26.48 ± 3.05; p = 0.001) between the 2 groups after the intervention, but there was no significant difference regarding anxiety (25.03 ± 3.09; p = 0.35). Conclusion The findings showed that infertility counseling did not affect the total score of infertile women' emotional status, but improved the domains of it except, anxiety.

A Qualitative Overview of the Infertility Process in Women: Infertility Psychological Counseling

“…When the approaches, models, and intervention systems related to infertility are examined, first of all, a model, which includes the topics of informing couples about sexuality, infertility diagnosis, and treatment, creating realistic and concrete expectations and goals, gaining the ability to cope with crisis and stress in a healthy way, applying to social support resources, instilling hope, creating alternative solutions (adoption, living a life without children), and strengthening psychological resilience, can be suggested (Clapp & Adamson, 2006;Mokhtari-Sorkhani et al, 2022;Sorkhani et al, 2022;Yılmaz & Oskay, 2015;Kaya & Oskay,2019). However, individual and group counseling sessions, including the themes generated in this study shown in Figure 9 (including infertility experience, stress factors, acquired skills, social support resources, the role of a spouse, coping skills, and belief in treatment), can be configured.…”

Empowering Midwifery Students: Educational Intervention Based on Group Counseling for Clinical Stress Management

“…These interventions were led by a specialized health psychologist and a midwifery counselor in eight inperson sessions for participants, organized into different cohorts, lasting a total of 16 hours (2 hours per session with two sessions per week). After the final session, the post-test was distributed and completed (15). The content of the educational intervention package was developed based on findings from similar studies (16) (Table 1).…”

Anais Do 2° Congresso Internacional Multiprofissional Em Atenção Primária À Saúde

“…Para distúrbios hormonais, os medicamentos podem ser prescritos para regular a ovulação e promover a concepção. Anomalias uterinas podem ser corrigidas por meio de cirurgias cirúrgicas, melhorando as chances de implantação bemsucedida (SORKHANI et al, 2021).…”