A psychological study of male,female related and unexplained infertility in Indian urban couples

Objective: The study intended to see the impact of infertility on experience of emotional trauma, belief pattern and formation of psychopathology and also to explore the psychopathology with respect to degree of infertility related stress impact among male, female and unexplained factor infertility in couples suffering from primary infertility.

Design: This was a clinic-based, cross-sectional comparative study based on a consecutive sampling method.

Subjects: Sixty couples were studied of whom 10 couples had male-related infertility (MF), 10 had female-related infertility (FF) and 10 unexplained infertility (UF). Another 30 fertile couples were also included as comparative group (CG) after matching on certain sociodemographic variables with the clinical groups.

Measures: Impact of Event Scale, Symptom Checklist-90 Revised and Irrational Belief Scale were used.

Results: The impact of emotional trauma and irrational belief was greatest in the male-related infertility couples, and somatisation in the unexplained group, whereas depression and interpersonal sensitivity were higher in the female-related infertility couples. An impact of moderate to severe infertility-related stress on depression and irrational beliefs was also observed. Gender difference was evident with respect to psychopathology and types of infertility.

Conclusion: The impact of infertility is evident with respect to psychopathology with differential impact of various types of infertility groups among Indian couples.