Open Access“In cycles of dreams, despair, and desperation:” Research perspectives on infertility specific distress in patients undergoing fertility treatments
Author(s) -
Ansha Patel,
Podila Satya Venkata Narasimha Sharma,
Pratap Kumar
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of human reproductive sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.484
H-Index - 31
eISSN - 0974-1208
pISSN - 1998-4766
DOI - 10.4103/jhrs.jhrs_42_18
Subject(s) - distress , childlessness , infertility , anxiety , grief , psychology , fertility , interpersonal communication , emotional distress , clinical psychology , psychotherapist , psychiatry , social psychology , medicine , pregnancy , population , environmental health , biology , genetics
"Emotional distress in infertility" is a broad expression that loosely denotes anxiety, depression, grief, crisis, depleting psychological well-being, and all forms of affective and interpersonal disturbances faced by individuals with infertility. The distress is usually associated with involuntary childlessness as it is an unwelcoming event. The developmental crisis associated with childlessness poses a threat to one's sense of self at all levels (individual, family and social). Distress may begin before or during treatments as a person experiences the loss of control over attaining parenthood, anxiety or dejection after the diagnosis, treatments, its complications particularly its limited success rates. This paper reviews the basic concepts, theoretical models related to infertility specific distress (ISD). It elaborates on the effects of individual and treatment-specific variables on ISD with special highlights gathered from the national and international research.