Publication:

Psychological distress and quality of life of Malaysian infertile couples

Background Infertility is an intense situation experienced by couples that causes emotional discomfort and worsening of their quality of life (QoL). The husband and wives of the infertile couples may reacted differently to stress.

Methods This is a cross-sectional study involving 100 infertile couples attending fertility clinics. Cases were selected by systematic random sampling. The severity of depression, anxiety and stress was measured using the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21) and QoL was assessed with the Fertility Quality of Life (FertiQoL) questionnaire.

Results Multivariate analysis revealed that depression, anxiety and stress-related difficulties were reported at a higher level by wives (p<0.001). Total Ferti QoL scores were significantly higher in husbands (p<0.001). The female gender (wives) was the only significant variable associated with the severity of all three DASS-21 sub-scale scores (p <0.001) and considered as a high-risk factor for psychological distress. Poor Qol were significantly associated with wives (p<0.001), male cause of infertility (p=0.004), primary infertility (p=0.022) and previous history of receiving intrauterine insemination (IUI) (p =0.020).

Conclusions The wives of the infertile couples were at higher risk of developing psychological distress and had poor QoL than their husbands. The severity of the anxiety, depression and stress were adversely affected the QoL.