Surveying of relationship between anxiety, depression and duration of infertility

Background: A cross sectional study was designed to survey the relationship between anxiety, depression and duration of infertility, in Vali-e-Asr Reproductive Health Research Center, Tehran, Iran. Methods: After obtaining their consent, 370 female patients with different infertility causes participated in and data gathered by Beck Depression Inventory(BDI) and Cattle questionnaires for surveying anxiety and depression due to the duration of infertility. This was studied in relation to patients' age, educational level, socio-economic status and job (patients and their husband). Results: Age range was 17-45 years and duration of infertility was 1-20 years. This survey showed that 151 patients (40.8%) had depression and 321 patients (86.8%) had anxiety. Depression had a significant relation with cause of infertility, duration of infertility and educational level, but not with the job of patients. Anxiety had a significant relationship with duration of infertility and job, but not with cause of infertility or patients' educational level. Findings showed that anxiety and depression were most common after 4-6 years of infertility and especially severe depression could be found in those who had infertility for 7-9 years. Conclusions: It can be emphasized that serious attention to these patients psychologically and treating them properly is of great importance for their mental health and will improve their life quality. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.