Feelings of shame, depression and self-esteem among women experiencing infertility (original article) Vol. XXXVII - n. 3 Maggio-Giugno pp 111-115, 2015

It has been broadly documented that infertility and its treatment affects males and females both as individuals and couple. In general, females with infertility report more negative emotions than men, including lower levels of self-esteem and higher levels of depression, stress, anxiety, stigma, and shame. Methods. Experience of shame scale, Beck depression inventory II and Rosenberg self-esteem scale were administered to 80 women suffering from infertility and undergoing IVF treatments. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Pearson's correlations were run for statistical evaluation. Results. Data showed that both depression and shame were negatively associated with self-esteem. Instead of the number of times women underwent IVF treatments, partner support was found to significantly affect women's quality of life. In fact, women who perceived partner support during the IVF treatment reported higher level of self-esteem and lower level of shame and depression, in comparison with women who did not feel that support. Conclusions. Partner support is an important element of coping with infertility. Therefore, a supportive intervention, focusing on enhancing a sense of partnership among infertile couples is a way of helping them to deal with this problem