Gratitude in infertility: a cross-sectional examination of dispositional gratitude in coping with infertility-related stress in women undergoing IVF

University students' attitudes toward gender roles and infertility: A descriptive and correlational study

PURPOSE

To examine the relationship between university students' attitudes toward gender roles and infertility.

DESIGN AND METHODS

This descriptive and correlational study was conducted with 743 university students between September and December 2020. Data were collected using a personal information form, the Gender Roles Attitude Scale, and the Attitudes Towards Infertility Scale through online forms.

FINDINGS

It was found that attitudes toward gender roles and infertility could be influenced by some sociodemographic factors, for instance, students' sex, education, and family type. There was also a moderate and positive correlation between attitudes toward gender roles and infertility.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

The present study contributes to a better understanding of the social construction and attitudes toward gender roles and infertility. For a better future, it is recommended that nurses help and support university students in raising awareness about such an important social problem.

A dyadic approach to depression, resilience and quality of life on marital adjustment among infertile couples in Karachi, Pakistan: A cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

Infertility is a major reproductive health problem in Pakistan. It has the potential to cause serious negative impact on a couple's marital life and psychological health.

AIM

This study aimed to assess the factors associated with maladjustment among infertile couples.

METHOD

An analytical cross-sectional design was employed. Validated scales were used to assess marital adjustment, depression, resilience and quality of life among infertile couples. Purposive sampling was employed to enrol 334 infertile couples from a private infertility medical centre, of Karachi, Pakistan.

RESULTS

Among couples, marital adjustment scores were comparable, but resilience and quality of life were significantly low among wives whereas depression was significantly high among wives compared with husbands. Wives' marital adjustment was positively correlated with husband's resilience and quality of life and negatively related with his depression. After employing adjusted actor-partner interdependence modelling, wives' own depression and resilience had significant effect on their marital adjustment and their partner's resilience, depression and quality of life did not have any impact on their outcome. On the contrary, wives' resilience had a significant effect in increasing the marital adjustment of their husband.

CONCLUSION

This study highlights the need to promote psychological support (resilience building skills) or couples' therapy to all those couples undergoing infertility treatment.

Ambivalence experienced by infertile couples undergoing IVF: a qualitative study

The emotional consequences of infertility are well documented. However, relatively few studies have emphasized the dyadic emotional interaction within couples, despite infertility being a shared life event. This study adopted a dyadic (between two people) approach to explore the emotional complexity that infertile couples face. A descriptive qualitative study was conducted with 24 participants, including eight infertile couples and eight wives undergoing infertility treatments. Conjoint and individual interviews were conducted through purposive sampling in a large fertility centre in Tianjin, China, between June and August 2015. Thematic analysis identified two main themes: (i) 'decisional ambivalence', with subthemes of 'ambivalent attitudes towards treatment', 'uncertainty about treatment outcomes', and 'treatment-related lifestyle changes'; and (ii) 'relational ambivalence' which included subthemes of 'intergenerational ambivalence' and 'partner ambivalence'. Complex emotions of ambivalence among infertile couples were common as infertility clearly shattered their assumptive world on family formation. With complex entanglement of mixed emotions, ambivalence was intimately associated with cultural norms, social expectations, and active or over engagement of family members in Chinese societies. Since ambivalence could threaten mental and physical health during pregnancy, healthcare professionals should be prepared to assist infertile couples with identifying, articulating, and normalizing decisional and relational ambivalence during the treatment process.

Analysis of the levels of hope and influencing factors in infertile women with first-time and repeated IVF-ET cycles

Purpose

To explore the hope levels and influencing factors in infertile women undergoing first-time and repeated in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer (IVF-ET) cycles.

Methods

This study was a cross-sectional and convenient sampling study conducted among patients undergoing IVF-ET from January to June 2019. Patients were divided into first-time and repeated groups by the number of IVF-ET cycles, and then a questionnaire survey was administered. The questionnaire included demographic information, Herth hope index (HHI) scale, Locke-Wallace short marital-adjustment test scale and social support rating scale. Multiple linear regression was used to analyse the influencing factors associated with hope levels.

Results

A total of 298 IVF-ET patients were recruited for the study, including 150 (50.3%) in the first-time cycle group and 148 (49.7%) in the repeated cycle group. The HHI score of the repeated cycle group was significantly lower than that of the first-time cycle group (34.4 ± 3.5 vs. 37.5 ± 3.7, P < 0.001). Multiple linear regression analysis indicated that repeated IVF-ET and age were independently negatively correlated with HHI, with standardized coefficient β values of − 0.895 and − 0.223, respectively (both P < 0.001). High education level (P = 0.002), high monthly income (P = 0.020), high degree of short marital-adjustment test (P < 0.001) and social support rating (P < 0.001) were independently positively correlated with HHI.

Conclusion

Infertile women undergoing repeated IVF-ET have low hope levels. Maintaining a good marriage adjustment and establishing a good social support and relationship network could effectively improve their hope levels.

Hope level is closely related to patients' mental health and emotional state. Therefore, improving the hope level of infertile women with IVF-ET could contribute to relieving the psychological pressure of patients and improving the success rate of pregnancy. This study aimed to evaluate the hope level of infertile women with different IVF-ET cycles and analyse its influencing factors to provide guidance for clinical nurses to clarify the intervention objects, select reasonable intervention measures and improve the hope levels of patients. A total of 298 IVF-ET patients were recruited in the study, including 150 in the first-time cycle group and 148 in the repeated cycle group. The results showed that the hope level of patients with repeated IVF-ET cycles was significantly lower than that of patients undergoing first-time treatment. We also analysed its influencing factors and found that repeated IVF-ET cycles and age were independent negative correlation factors in hope levels. High monthly income, living in the city, high marital adjustment and social support score were independent positive correlation factors in hope levels. Therefore, maintaining a good marriage adjustment and establishing a good social support and relationship network could effectively improve their hope levels.