How does Infertility Affect Mental Health in Women?

How does Infertility Affect Mental Health in Women?
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Abstract
Rationale:
Gender is a key determinant of health whose influence may lead to health disparities. Infertility is a reproductive health concern affecting both men and women, with the latter experiencing more devastating effects on their overall wellbeing. The inability of a woman to conceive a child after one year of unprotected sex with their partners can result in a wide range of mental health problems for the victim. This study seeks to investigate the impact of infertility on women's mental health.
Objective:
This study aims to explore and explain the impact of infertility on women's mental health
Methodology:
The research methodology for this study is the literature review of selected peer-reviewed documents or articles from selected databases, including PubMed Central, BioMed (BMC) Central, SAGE Journals Online, and ResearchGate. Only articles published in 2017 and later are considered for review. The research methodology selected 20 papers deemed relevant for the literature review.
Results:
Results from the review of selected literature indicate that infertility presents a wide range of negative implications on women's mental wellbeing.
Discussion
There are different definitions of infertility in women based on age and ability to carry a pregnancy to term. Women above the age of 40 years, for instance, are considered infertile if they fail to conceive after three months of unprotected sexual intercourse. Infertility is a threat to women's mental health and wellbeing irrespective of its form.
Implications:
The impact of age in assessing how infertility affects the mental wellbeing of women calls for further investigations to understand the difference in how women across different age groups deal with the problem.
How Does Infertility Affect Mental Health in Women?
The health and well-being of individuals and groups in any given society are functions of different personal, social, economic, and environmental factors. Factors such as a person’s gender or cultural orientation, childhood experiences, physical environment, level of education and literacy, and even their racial backgrounds play a significant role in determining their health. These factors are commonly referred to as determinants of health. Among the determinants of health is a specific category of social and economic factors relating to an individual’s or group’s place in society known as the social determinants of health. These social determinants of health account for the existing health disparities among members of a given community and include gender, income, and employment. For instance, according to the Second Report on the Health of Canadians, women are more likely to suffer depression and other complications than their male counterpartsCITATION Gov13 \l 1033 (Government of Canada, 2013). It suffices, therefore, that gender is a key determinant of health whose influence may lead to health disparities in society. Infertility is a reproductive health concern affecting both men and women, with varied repercussions on society's overall health and well-being. It affects the psychological, biological, and social well-being of women.
The implications of infertility on women include feelings of loneliness, anxiety and depression, stress, stigmatization, loss of control, and an overall decreased quality of life. The “gendered” norm associated with women, such as their roles as home-care providers for their families and their biological nature as maternal beings, tends to exert more pressure on women regarding parenthood CITATION Gov13 \l 1033 (Government of Canada, 2013). Hence, the ability to conceive after unprotected sexual intercourse with a male sexual partner and carrying out a pregnancy to term weighs more on women than on men. In essence, gender is a crucial determinant of the health and wellbeing of individuals and groups in society, with subsequent disparities in the manifestation or distribution of the diverse health concerns.
The impact of infertility on the mental health of individuals and groups in society makes for an excellent platform for assessing and evaluating the influence of gender as a social determinant of health. The following research question will assist in analyzing and evaluating the impact of the selected social determinant of health on the identified health concern; how does infertility affect women's mental health? Provided herein is a comprehensive review of selected literature on the impact of infertility on women's mental health towards establishing correlations between gender, as a social determinant of health, and women's health outcomes.
Literature Review
The literature review is based on understanding the scope of infertility embraced by different scholarly works. The reviewed articles feature different definitions revolving around the aspects of conception, ability to carry a pregnancy to term, and other factors such as age. Szkodziak (2020), for instance, defines infertility as the inability to conceive and produce offspring that features failure to establish a clinical pregnancy upon completing 12 months of regular and unprotected sexual intercourse. Klock (2011) and Rockwood (2016) also adopt the same definition of infertility and thus forming the working definition for this literature review. However. There exists some disparities among other scholars in the definition of infertility, with Ezzell (2016) bringing another dimension to the manifestation of the reproductive health problem. Windy Ezzell’s study points out the different definitions of infertility among women based on age for an enhanced understanding of its demographic distribution in society. According to Ezzell (2016), infertility refers to the inability to conceive after one year of unprotected sexual intercourse among women aged 35 years and below. Ezzell (2016) also points out that women aged 35 to 45 years are considered infertile upon failing to conceive after six months of unprotected sex. The age factor in the ability to conceive plays a singificant role in determining the severity of its effects on the mental health of women with infertility. In canada, for instance, the women aged between 35 and 44 years have an increased risk of female-factor infertilityCITATION Roc16 \l 1033 (Rockwood, 2016).
Infertility makes for a global reproductive health concern. Szkodziak (2020) posits that infertility affects approximately 12% of the world’s population. Rockwood (2016) echoes the same sentiments revealing that up to one in four women have difficulties conceiving and carrying a pregnancy to term. According to Rockwood (2016) infertility affects 15% of couples in Canada. The reproductive health problem has almost the same impact in the United States, with approximately 16% of couples being unable to conceive and have offspring CITATION Sim21 \l 1033 (Klock, 2011).
Infertility poses great challenges to the mental health and overall wellbeing of women. Ezzell (2015) observes that though infertility affects both men and women in a couple, women experience more adverse emotional and psychological effects. Hasaanpoor-Azghdy (2014) highlights infertility as a major adverse health concern for women, with adverse emotional and psychological effects on women with infertility. Hasaanpoor-Azghdy’s study explores the diverse manifestations of mental health problems in women with infertility, including their mental engagement and psychological turmoil while seeking interventional measures to help conceive children CITATION Has141 \l 1033 (Hasanpoor-Azghdy, 2014). Though infertility affects the mental health and well-being of infertile individuals or couples, it has devastating psychological and emotional effects on women CITATION Has141 \l 1033 (Hasanpoor-Azghdy, 2014). Klock (2011) concurs with the findings of the above studies reiterating infertility’s devastating impacts on women's emotional and psychological well-being. Pregnancy and motherhood reflect key transitional stages in their women’s development and thus failure to achieve the same poses devaststing implications on their mental health.
Anxiety and depression makes for the most prevalent inftertility-related mental health problems among women. The manifestation of these mental health problems may differ from one woman to the other depending on other factors characterizing the infertility. For instance, Rockwood (2016) finds that infertility results in depression and anxiety among women with longer durations of infertility. Kiani (2021) observes a higher prevalence of depression symptoms among infertile women than their male counterparts. The study reveals that infertile women experience more severe bouts of depression than infertile men CITATION Kia21 \l 1033 (Kiani, 2021). Infertile women have a higher prevalence of depression than the other general population members, and thus the need to develop and implement effective interventional measures to address social health disparities CITATION Kia21 \l 1033 (Kiani, 2021). An observational study by Hoff (2015) evaluating the relationship between infertility in women and mental health disorders also indicates that most women with infertility suffer from mental health disorders, most prevalent being depression and anxiety disorder. A cross-sectional survey from Hungary also finds a high prevalence of anxiety and depression among infertile women. The survey findings reveal that infertility strongly correlates with a chronic state of stress that often manifests itself in various symptoms related to anxiety and depression CITATION Lak17...