What Are the Issues Confronting Infertile Women? A Qualitative and Quantitative Approach

Authors

Katja Hämmerli, University of BernFollow
Hansjörg Znoj, University of BernFollow
Thomas Berger, University of BernFollow

Abstract

Infertility is a stressful experience, yet little is known about the specific issues confronting infertile women. In the present study, researchers sought to identify themes important to infertile women and examine possible associations with mental health levels. Using qualitative content analysis, researchers analyzed the email messages of 57 infertile women participating in a German-language Internet-based treatment for infertility. The themes most important to infertile women were emotions surrounding their wish for a child, coping with this unfulfilled wish, and medical aspects. Clinically anxious women reported substantially and significantly more negative and positive emotions than non-anxious women did (Mann-Whitney U(1)=178; p=0.034). Participants who were both clinically anxious and depressed reported more negative emotions and substantially fewer positive emotions when compared to participants who were solely anxious. The themes identified, considered important by infertile women, could be helpful to health professionals working in fertility treatment.

Keywords

Counselling, Distress, Emotions, Infertility, Internet, Pregnancy, Psychosocial Issues, Reproductive Medice, and Women's Health

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Isabelle Pfister for her contribution to the qualitative analysis. The present study was supported by a grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation, Bern, Switzerland (grant no. 325100 -11375411). No competing financial interests exist.

Publication Date

7-1-2010

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.46743/2160-3715/2010.1180

Recommended APA Citation

Hämmerli, K., Znoj, H., & Berger, T. (2010). What Are the Issues Confronting Infertile Women? A Qualitative and Quantitative Approach. The Qualitative Report, 15(4), 766-782. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2010.1180