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Infertility treatment hinders the careers of working women in Japan
Author(s) -
Ichikawa Tomoko,
Ota Ikuko,
Kuwabara Yoshimitsu,
Tsushima Ruriko,
Hamatani Toshio,
Hiraike Osamu,
Takeshita Toshiyuki,
Osuga Yutaka,
Akira Shigeo
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of obstetrics and gynaecology research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.597
H-Index - 50
eISSN - 1447-0756
pISSN - 1341-8076
DOI - 10.1111/jog.14387
Subject(s) - infertility , medicine , fertility , quality of life (healthcare) , mood , assisted reproductive technology , childlessness , sadness , family medicine , psychiatry , nursing , anger , pregnancy , population , environmental health , genetics , biology
Aim Women undergoing infertility treatment often need to balance work and fertility treatment. Therefore, we evaluated the quality of life (QOL) and impact of infertility treatment on Japanese working women and their careers. Methods We conducted an online questionnaire at 18 clinics in Japan. Responses were collected from 835 women, 713 of whom were working. The participants were divided into three groups based on treatment stage. Data were collected using the FertiQoL and an original questionnaire created by the authors. The Mann–Whitney U test and a multinomial logistic analysis were used. Results Approximately 90% of the participants felt that treatment could hinder their work and 8% had quit their jobs. Low QOL was associated with sadness and despair due to infertility and mood disorders, disruptions to life and work, and the complicated medications and procedures involved in treatment. Social isolation and the effect of fertility treatment on daily life and work strongly hindered the careers of working women in the third stage of treatment (in vitro fertilization and intracytoplasmic sperm injection). Approximately 70% of the participants required support to subsidize treatment costs and sought shorter working hours and flextime systems. Only 55% informed their workplaces about the fertility treatment, but about 70% easily gained understanding by informing them. Conclusions For many working women, infertility treatment posed barriers to their careers, which could explain the low QOL. Urgent introduction of a support system is necessary in Japan, and understanding and social acceptance of infertility appears to be important.