Psychological problems among women with infertility problem: A comparative study

Objective: To explore the difference between anxiety and depression among infertile and fertile women. Methods: The study was conducted in 2009 and comprised fertile and infertile women. The sample of infertile women was drawn from the Liaquat National Hospital, Patel Hospital, Infertility Concept and Zainub Hospital, located in urban areas of Karachi, while fertile women were drawn from the general population in urban Karachi. All the subjects had at least 10 years of education and were in the age range of 20-35 years. They two groups were further divided into two sub-groups of working and non-working women. Institute for Personality and Ability Testing Depression and Anxiety scales were used to assess depression and anxiety. SPSS 14.0 was used to analyse the data. Result: Of the 120 subjects, the two groups had 60(50%) each. The mean age of fertile women was 27.48 +/- 160.75 and that in the infertile group was 27.36 +/- 160.75. Depression among fertile women was 21.85 +/- 10.98 compared to 32.01 +/- 12.49 among the infertile women. Corresponding values for anxiety was 24.45 +/- 9.63 and 36.20 +/- 12.51.The difference was significant. Conclusion: Women with infertility experience a greater psychological impact.