Quality of life and its related factors in infertile couples

Abstract

Background: Health related quality of life (QoL) has now been considered as a main tool for outcome measurement in infertility. The present study aimed to determine the association between general and specified QoL with different psychological aspects of self-esteem, social support, sexual satisfaction, and marital satisfaction in a sample of Iranian infertile couples.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 385 infertile couples referred to the Fatemieh Hospital in Hamadan City, western Iran in 2012.To measure the self-esteem, the Iseng test was used. The social support scaling developed by Cassidy and Long was used for assessment of social support. The sexual satisfaction was also assessed by the Lindaberg questionnaire. For assessing the general QoL state, the WHO-QoL-BREF and FertiQoL tools were employed.

Results: Self-esteem scores were lower in the couples with longer infertility duration. The social support mean score was lower in low income couples. Those with higher educational level, shorter infertility duration, and higher income were more satisfied from their marital relationships. Besides, we revealed that the previous failed efforts for treatment of infertility were adversely associated with the lower social support and sexual satisfaction. The higher educational level, higher monthly income, living in urban area, shorter duration of marriage and infertility, and male gender were associated with better. QoL status in the most components.Associations between QoL and self-esteem, social support, sexual satisfaction, and marital satisfaction were significant (P<0.05).

Conclusions: The QoL status in infertile couples is directly associated with their self-esteem, social support, sexual satisfaction, and marital satisfaction.

Keywords: Infertility; Quality of life; Satisfaction; Self-esteem.