4.2 Interpretation
The aim of this study was to determine the effect of the social
emotional capacities of infertile individuals on their stress levels and
their ability to cope with infertility stress. In this section, the
relationships between average socio-demographic and clinical
characteristics, infertility stress (individual, marital, social)
averages, average scores of coping methods with infertility stress and
social-emotional capacity load average scores are discussed. Turkey’s
national data results show that the average age of infertile individuals
from 2019 to 2022 is 32.3 ± 4.9 years, which is similar to the average
age of the participants in our study.25 There are
publications in the literature stating that women and men face the
problem of infertility together and that men actively participate in the
treatment process, as in our study results.4,26
Almost every couple wants to have children through fertility treatment,
but some have difficulty having a baby.4,27 Contrary
to popular perception, infertility treatment techniques do not guarantee
success. Previous study findings have shown that 38% to 49% of couples
who begin IVF treatment will remain childless even after undergoing up
to six in vitro fertilization cycles.28 The couples
who participated in our study also applied to the infertility center
again due to treatment results that did not result in a live birth. Like
the results of our study, about a quarter of the participants in the
previous study had IUI and about half had IVF treatment, but less than
half resulted in pregnancy.28,29 Almost all of these
pregnancies ended in miscarriage and a few in ectopic pregnancy. Since
the most frequent result of the treatments of these individuals was not
live birth, the participants had received one of the reproductive health
treatments on average four times before, and these findings are similar
to the results of previous studies.25,28
Although the inability to have children affects both genders
emotionally, it may cause women to experience more stress, anxiety, and
depression problems than men in different areas of their
lives.2,9,10 In our study, it was determined that
women experienced more stress in their individual, marital, and social
areas due to infertility than men; they had higher anxiety scores, and
experienced a feeling of hopelessness more intensely. Studies have shown
that infertile women experience high levels of stress in the individual
and marital fields, moderate levels of stress in the social
sphere,29 and high levels of anxiety and
depression.9,10
According to the study results, regardless of the cause of infertility
and who caused it, women are more negatively affected and feel more
guilt and stress than men. Data from numerous studies have revealed that
rates of psychological problems such as depression and anxiety are
higher among infertile women.3,23,30 Lakatos et
al.10 reported that women diagnosed with infertility
experienced more anxiety and depression than men. This result may be
because women are exposed to a large part of the treatments applied,
even if infertility is of male origin, and femininity is directly
related to childbearing in traditional
societies.18,23,31
According to our study findings, couples use active avoidance, which
includes thoughts such as avoiding being with pregnant women and women
with children, at a similar rate as a method of coping with fertility
stress. However, women use the passive avoidance method, which includes
thoughts such as feeling that the only thing they can do is to wait,
more than men. These women have higher infertility stress than men. In
previous studies, it has been stated that the active avoidance coping
method and the passive avoidance coping method are associated with an
increase in infertility stress, while the active-confrontational coping
method and the meaning-based coping method are associated with a
decrease in infertility stress.1,20,32
In our study, we evaluated five risk factors (anxiety, depression,
helplessness and acceptance, and lack of social support) with SCREENIVF
to indicate the social, emotional, and psychological burden of couples
diagnosed with infertility. We determined that women’s social,
emotional, and psychological burden is greater than that of men. In
addition to the fact that the anxiety level of men was lower than that
of women, their mean score was below the cut-off point, which showed
that men were not at risk for anxiety. Men are not at as much risk as
women in terms of their social emotional capacities. A study by Lopes et
al.33 (average score averages of the Anxiety, Social
Support, Helplessness, Acceptance and Depression subscales of the
SCREENIVF scale) supports our study results. Studies show that low
familial and social support for infertile people leads to higher
stress.34,35