Infertile women's experience of stressful dilemmas during assisted reproductive technology treatment

This study aimed to explore the unique stress experiences and multidimensional stress dilemmas of infertile women during assisted reproductive technology (ART) treatment in the Chinese cultural context.

Fifteen infertile women undergoing ART treatment at a tertiary hospital in Chongqing were recruited for semi-structured face-to-face interviews. Guided by descriptive phenomenology, interview data were analyzed using the Colaizzi phenomenological approach with NVivo software.

Three core stress dimensions were identified; while these stress categories align with findings from Western research, their experiential manifestations are shaped by local Chinese sociocultural contexts: subjective stress dilemmas (negative emotions, body image distress, cognitive biases, and internalized stigma shaped by traditional fertility norms), objective stress dilemmas (work-treatment conflicts, limited family/spousal support, and heavy financial/time burdens under local social policies), and coping dilemmas (ineffective self-regulation and insufficient culturally tailored external support).

Stress-related struggles reported by sampled Chongqing women share common stress categories documented in Western cohorts, yet their concrete manifestations and perceived severity are distinctly shaped by local Chinese sociocultural norms. These findings highlight the necessity of developing culturally sensitive psychological interventions and social support strategies for infertile women in China, providing a novel localized perspective for global reproductive mental health research.