Lived Experience of IVF-ET Program / 여성건강간호학회지

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: This study was to identify what experience meant for the wives that attempted IVF-ET(In Vitro Fertilization-Embryo Transfer) program due to the spouse's infertility and provide fundamental materials to improve nursing interventions. METHOD: Giorgi's phenomenological method was employed, the subjects were five wives who had ever attempted IVF-ET program due to the infertility of their spouses. In-depth interview and observation method were utilized to gather information from April to December 2003. RESULT: The significant results from analyzing the interviews can be grouped into 34 themes, 8 categories. The essential themes for the experiences of the wives were 'shocked by the unbelievable reality', 'can't give up the connection to the blood', 'Lack of social education on pregnancy, and childbirth', 'self-pity', 'feelings of both families', 'Being afraid of the unexpected result', 'physical and mental agony', 'Positively coping with the reality. CONCLUSION: The results show that infertility is not a mere personal matter, and infertile people, their families and society should team up with in tackling it. The physical, psychological and social problems triggered by infertility could be ironed out by making both personal and collaborative approaches to that.