A study of quality of life of infertile women

Pages: 59-64
Zainab Ahmed (Clinical Psychologist, Department of Health & Family Welfare, Govt of West Bengal)
Sanjukta Das (Department of Psychology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, West Bengal)

In a pronatalist culture such as in India, infertility is an important issue. Until recently, very few studies have been done to understood the patterns and consequences o f infertility in India. Infertility in women has varied impact on multiple dimensions o f health and functioning. An attempt was made to study the quality o f life (QoL) o f infertile women and to explore the factors affecting it. Standardised questionnaires were administered to 30 married infertile women (diagnosed with female causes for infertility) and 30 married fertile women. Data was treated with appropriate statistics. Infertile women have a significantly poor quality o f life than fertile women, especially in the physical, psychological and social domains. Length o f menstrual cycle emerged as a significant negative predictor o f the overall quality o f life and social QoL and duration o f infertility emerged as the negative predictor o f physical and psychological QoL. This understanding may help us to improve their quality o f life by psychotherapeutic interventions.