The Relationship Between Infertility, Stress, and Quality of Life with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Infertile Women

BACKGROUND: The infertility experience and its treatment are accompanied by the symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The aim of this study was determining the relationship between posttraumatic stress disorder and quality of life and the infertile women’s stress. METHODS: In this descriptive-analytic study, 172 infertile women were divided in four groups. Convenience sampling was done and eligible infertile women referred to Qafqaz Infertility Center in Iran were included in the study. The data was collected between January and March 2019 through posttraumatic stress disorder checklist, The Fertility Quality of Life (FertiQoL) questionnaire, and Newton's infertility stress questionnaire. Pearson correlation, linear regression analysis, and two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were applied for data analysis with a significance level of 0.05. RESULTS: The results of two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed that there was no significant relationship between the type of treatment (p=0.548) and the reception of psychological intervention (p=0.450). In addition, the results of Pearson correlation showed that there was an inverse significant relationship between the total score of posttraumatic stress disorder and quality of life (r=−0.91, p<0.001) and a direct relationship between the total score of posttraumatic stress disorder and level of stress (r=0.56, p<0.001). CONCLUSION: The results of this study showed that 41.3% of the infertile women had the symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder. Due to the relationships of posttraumatic stress disorder with the quality of life and infertility stress, providing regular designed psychological interventions is recommended for infertile individuals.