Depression and anxiety levels in infertile Turkish women

To investigate the levels of anxiety-depression in women with infertility and to investigate the relationship between psychologic symptoms, course of treatment and cultural factors.

The study included 107 women with primary infertility in the index group and 63 healthy women in the control group. The Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale was applied to both groups to evaluate psychologic symptoms. The same scale was applied once more after 3 months to the infertility group.

There was no significant difference in the level of depression-anxiety between the 2 groups. The severity of psychologic symptoms was greater in those in the infertility group who had attempted nonmedical solutions, who were under pressure from their husbands' families because of their infertility and who reported "bad" relations with their husbands. At the end of the 3 months, the group of patients who achieved pregnancy showed significantly lower levels of anxiety and depression scores than the group of patients who did not. Age, attempts at nonmedical solutions, pressure from the husband's family because of infertility and anxiety level at the start of the study were variables that predicted pregnancy negatively.

It can be useful to take cultural factors into account in evaluating the mental health of infertile women.