• Evaluation of psychosocial health in couples facing infertility problems
  • Mohammad-Salar Hosseini,1,* Amirreza Naseri,2 Morteza Ghojazadeh,3
    1. Student Research Committee, Research Center for Evidence-Based Medicine, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
    2. Student Research Committee, Research Center for Evidence-Based Medicine, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
    3. Iranian Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) Centre, A Joanna Briggs Institute Affiliated Group, Iran


  • Introduction: Infertility is defined as not being able to conceive children, despite having frequent, unprotected sex for at least a year. Approximately, 12% of couples in their reproductive age are infertile. It bears painful psychological distress, which could be commonly evident in the form of anxiety, depression, somatization or social dysfunction in the affected couples. The General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) is a screening device for identifying minor psychiatric disorders in the general population and within the community or non-psychiatric clinical settings. The goal of this study was to evaluate the mental health status of the infertile couples referred to the Al-Zahra Infertility Clinic by the General Health Questionnaire-28 (GHQ-28).
  • Methods: In this qualitative study, 695 couples were randomly selected among couples referred to Al-Zahra Infertility Clinic for infertility work-up and treatment. After signing an informed consent form, each individual filled a questionnaire on demographic characteristics and one for mental health status assessment, the GHQ- 28. For GHQ-28, the proposed cut-off scores are 5/6 of points, and a score of less than 24 is considered as abnormal.
  • Results: The mean age of the couples (21 to 63 years) was 34. The preliminary diagnosis of infertility, classified by the gender, included 21.9% female, 65.5% male, 7.1% both and 5.4% unexplained causes of infertility. By regarding a cut-off score of 24 for the GHQ-28 questionnaire, 4% of the individuals showed an abnormal score. The abnormal scores were in domains of social dysfunction (43.5%), anxiety (10.9%), somatization (9.5%) and depression (3.3%). A significant statistical difference was seen between male and female participants in total GHQ-28 scores, as well as somatization and depression, (p<0.05), where the female participants showed worse psychological health states (p<0.05).
  • Conclusion: About 4% of individuals attending the Infertility Clinic seem to be at the risk of psychological disorders and the provision of psychological health care alongside medical treatment is advisable. Although in 65.5% of cases men have been the cause of infertility, female participants showed worse psychological health states. Therefore, screening psychological disorders in women seems also necessary.
  • Keywords: Anxiety, Depression, General health questionnaire, Infertility, Social dysfunction