Depression, anxiety, quality of life, and infertility: a global lens on the last decade of research

Abstract

We aimed to review the global literature in the past 10 years regarding the impact of infertility on depression, anxiety, stress, and quality of life while exploring the potential clinical utility of psychosocial fertility questionnaires. PubMed, Scopus, and CINAHL were searched for English-published articles since 2013 on key search terms related to infertility, assisted reproductive technologies, and psychological terms such as depression, anxiety, mood disorders, and quality of life. The search yielded 7,947 articles, of which 366 articles were independently deemed relevant by the 3 reviewers. Anxiety, depression, and diminished quality of life are prevalent in the infertility experience of both men and women. Studies from around the world show similar experiences independent of culture.

Keywords: Mental health; anxiety; depression; infertility; quality of life.