Relationship between domestic violence and infertility

Abstract

Background: Infertility is a significant psychological stressor among infertile couples. Aggressive behaviour such as domestic violence may be the consequence of this situation. Aims: To determine the relationship between domestic violence and infertility and its associated factors. Methods: This unmatched case-control study was conducted on 400 women who were referred to Al-Zahra teaching Hospital in Rasht, Islamic Republic of Iran, from May to December 2015. The data were collected by WHO Domestic violence questionnaire, which was validated in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Data were analyzed by using descriptive and analytical statistic (Chi square, t test, and logistic regression). Results: Out of the 200 infertile women 136 (68%) reported a history of physical violence, 120 (60%) had experienced sexual violence and 140 (70%) had psychological violence. There was a significant relationship between infertility and physical, sexual and psychological violence (P < 0.05). Logistic regression analysis revealed that the education level of women [OR= 0.176, 95% CI (0.070-0.446)], unemployment husband [OR=15.83, 95% CI (1.307-191.977)] and infertility [OR= 0.133, 95% CI (0.057-0.31)] were associated with domestic violence (P < 0.05). Conclusions: In this study there was a relationship between infertility and physical, sexual and psychological violence and infertile women were more likely to encounter domestic violence. Screening for domestic violence is necessary for infertile couples.

Domestic Violence among Infertile Women in Makurdi, North- Central Nigeria

“…In this study, the prevalence of all the subclasses of violence (physical, verbal, emotional and sexual) was higher among the infertile group compared to their fertile counterparts. This was consistent with results from other studies [7,8,[10][11][12][13]15,19,22,23].…”

“…The mean age of the infertile respondents was 32.0 (± 5.7) years. This was similar to the mean ages of 32.96 years reported by Rahebi et al [10], 31.77 years by Ozturk et at. [11], 31.6 years by Fatma et al [12], 31.66 years by Fatemeh et al [13] and 31.1 years by Farzadi et al [14].…”

“…In this study, the mean age of the fertile group was 33.5 years which was higher than the mean ages of 30.40 years and 32.44 years respectively among the fertile group in the studies by other authors [8,10].…”

“…However, the difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.3125). Several studies on this subject matter showed clearly that domestic violence was higher among infertile women compared to their fertile counter parts [10,13,18]. Sheikhan et al [15] and Akpinar et al [19] found lower domestic violence rates of 34.7% and 47.9% respectively among infertile women.…”

Editorial

“…Of course, environmental stress can have a multitude of sources including domestic, as examined in the article "Relationship between domestic violence and infertility" (16), when the anxiety of infertility is compounded by social expectations and fear that can manifest in aggressive behaviour and even injury, where usually it is the woman suffering assault, both psychological and physical. Supporting women's health continues to be of great importance when considering the more traditional roles that women as mothers and caregivers undertake in the Region, and maternal support in the relation with effective child development is the focus of research in the article "The effect of a maternal training programme on early childhood development in Egypt" (17), which examines positive correlations with effective maternal training and improved cognitive and behavioural development in children.…”