ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Scientific developments have brought hope to infertile couples; however, the results are not always favorable. This makes women suffer psychological pressure. Therefore, previous studies have investigated the effectiveness of many psychological interventions but no research identified the most common psychological interventions. In this regard, the present review aimed to investigate different psychological interventions that promote mental health in infertile to identify the most frequent (common) ones. METHODS: In the present study, the search was carried out using appropriate keywords Infertility, psychological interventions, mental health, stress, anxiety, depression and women in the Google ScholarØ MagiranØ SIDØ PubmedØ ScopusØ Science DirectØ ProQuestØ Web of Science databases and One of the leading websites in health- WHO with Persian and English languages and two operators of "AND" and "OR" between 2000 and 2021. RESULTS: First, 7319 articles were searched, 6948 articles of which were removed due to irrelevant subjects, and 31 articles were removed due to duplication. 340 abstracts were examined and the results of 60 articles were extracted. Two approaches (examining the type and content of intervention) were used to extract findings. The first approach indicated high diversity in psychological interventions, leading to the categorization of the interventions into 4 categories of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), mind-body interventions (MBI), stress management skills, and others. CBT and MBI and stress management skills were found as the most frequent promoting interventions for mental health in infertile women. The second approach indicated the differences in protocols (number of sessions and time of interventions). CONCLUSION: Despite differences in protocol of interventions under study, the results of all articles revealed the effectiveness of interventions in improving infertile women's mental health; therefore, it is suggested to apply the most common psychological interventions based on scientific evidence (CBT, MBI, and stress management skills) along with infertility treatment methods. The results will help the specialists, policy-makers, and planners to select and implement the most appropriate psychological interventions for infertile women.
Subject(s)
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy , Infertility, Female , Female , Humans , Infertility, Female/therapy , Mental Health , Anxiety , Anxiety DisordersABSTRACT
Infertility is considered a traumatic stressor for infertile couples. This cross-sectional study aimed to determine the mental health status and its relationship with social support in 345 male partners of infertile couples. Scores on the mental health measure (GHQ-28) indicated that 41.2% of the men had mental problem. Social support from the family, cause of infertility, education, and adequacy of family income were predictors of the mental health in infertile men according to multivariate linear regression. Strengthening social support for improving mental health of infertile men seems necessary.