Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Apr-Jun;11(2):180-189.
doi: 10.4103/jhrs.JHRS_119_17.

Illness Cognitions, Anxiety, and Depression in Men and Women Undergoing Fertility Treatments: A Dyadic Approach

Ansha Patel  1 , P S V N Sharma  1 , Pratap Kumar  2   3 , V S Binu  4
Affiliations

Illness Cognitions, Anxiety, and Depression in Men and Women Undergoing Fertility Treatments: A Dyadic Approach

Ansha Patel et al. J Hum Reprod Sci. 2018 Apr-Jun.

Abstract

Background: Emotional response to infertility is mediated by numerous interrelated psychological variables such as personality, health perceptions, cognitive appraisals, coping, and social support. While men and women respond to infertility differently, illness cognitions are a vital component of their emotional adjustment. The aim of this study is to compare the infertile men and women undergoing fertility treatments on perceived distress, helplessness, acceptance, benefits, anxiety, and depression.

Materials and methods: Eighty-one infertile couples, undergoing intrauterine insemination participated in the study. They were assessed on the presence of infertility distress using the fertility problem inventory, for psychiatric morbidity using the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview, for affective disturbances using the Hamilton Anxiety and Depression scales, and for illness cognitions using the Illness Cognition Questionnaire.

Statistical analysis: Data are analyzed using SPSS version 15. The paired sample t-test is performed for assessing differences on normally distributed data. The Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test is performed for assessing differences in medians obtained on data that was skewed.

Results and discussion: Infertile women (wives) were more emotionally distressed, anxious, and depressed than men (husbands). Gender-wise differences were found for perceptions of helplessness and acceptance of infertility. Infertility was perceived to be a nonbeneficial event for both partners investigated.

Conclusion: Negative cognitions and affective disturbances may contribute to higher treatment burden in couples seeking-assisted conception. The present study suggests that psychosocial intervention for couples plays a central role and should be integrated within the conventional treatments for infertility.

Keywords: Anxiety; Infertility specific stress; appraisal; assisted conception; burden; cognition; couple; depression; men; treatments; women.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

There are no conflicts of interest.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Neisser U. Cognitive Psychology. Englewood Cliffs. NJ: Prentice-Hall; 1967.
    1. Leventhal H, Meyer D, Nerenz D. The Common-Sense Representation of Illness Danger. In: Rachman S, editor. Contributions to Medical Psychology. Vol. 2. New York: Pergamon Press; 1980. pp. 7–30.
    1. Leventhal H, Leventhal EA, Contrada RJ. Self-regulation, health, and behavior: A perceptual-cognitive approach. Psychol Health. 1998;13:717–33.
    1. Leventhal H, Diefenbach M, Leventhal EA. Illness cognition: Using common sense to understand treatment adherence and affect cognition interactions. Cogn Ther Res. 1992;16:143–63.
    1. Broadbent E, Petrie KJ, Main J, Weinman J. The brief illness perception questionnaire. J Psychosom Res. 2006;60:631–7. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources