A comparative study of depression among infertile and fertile women

Background: Infertility has been a major medical and social preoccupation since the dawn of human existence and women have always been the symbol of fertility. Infertility is a stressful life event and depressive symptoms are normal responses to the life crisis of the infertile women. Aim and objective of the study was to determine the severity of depression in infertile females as compared to control group and to correlate the duration of infertility to depression in infertile females. Methods: The Present study was carried out on 70 patients in both groups. After randomization, assessment of Sociodemographic details was done with the help of semi-structured performa and severity of depression by beck depression rating scale. The proposed study was conducted in phased manner observing ethics of voluntary participation and informed consent of the participants were taken. Results: Both the groups were comparable with respect to age, socioeconomic status, occupation, education, religion, family type and area. No significant differences found between both groups with respect to the sociodemographic profile (p-value >0.05). The mean age of infertile women was 28.72 year and fertile women 27.45 years. We found that maximum female was from a middle class in both groups, 48 (68.57%) in infertile and 50 (71.42%) in the fertile group. Conclusions: Depression was more in infertile women. Depression severity was positively correlated with age of women and duration of infertility. Low socioeconomic status, low educated and rural background was a risk factor for severity of depression for infertile women.