Research article

A survey of relationship between anxiety, depression and duration of infertility

Fatemeh Ramezanzadeh , Malek Mansour Aghssa , Nasrin Abedinia , Farid Zayeri , Navid Khanafshar , Mamak Shariat and Mina Jafarabadi

Vali-e-Asr Reproductive Health Research Center,Gynecology and Obstetrics department, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Imam Khomeini Hospital Complex, Keshavarz BLVD, Tehran 14194, Iran

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BMC Women's Health 2004, 4:9doi:10.1186/1472-6874-4-9

Published:	6 November 2004

Abstract

Background

A cross sectional study was designed to survey the relationship between anxiety/depression and duration/cause of infertility, in Vali-e-Asr Reproductive Health Research Center, Tehran, Iran.

Methods

After obtaining their consents, 370 female patients with different infertility causes participated in, and data gathered by Beck Depression Inventory(BDI) and Cattle questionnaires for surveying anxiety and depression due to the duration of infertility. This was studied in relation to patients' age, educational level, socio-economic status and job (patients and their husbands).

Results

Age range was 17–45 years and duration and cause of infertility was 1–20 years. This survey showed that 151 women (40.8%) had depression and 321 women (86.8%) had anxiety. Depression had a significant relation with cause of infertility, duration of infertility, educational level, and job of women. Anxiety had a significant relationship with duration of infertility and educational level, but not with cause of infertility, or job. Findings showed that anxiety and depression were most common after 4–6 years of infertility and especially severe depression could be found in those who had infertility for 7–9 years.

Conclusions

Adequate attention to these patients psychologically and treating them properly, is of great importance for their mental health and will improve quality of their lives.