The Effect of Transactional Analysis Group Behavioral Therapy on Infertile Women"s Marital Satisfaction

Infertility causes psychological problems in infertile patients and exerts adverse effects on the marital life of couples. Therefore, the present study investigated the effects of transactional analysis (TA) group behavioral therapy on marital satisfaction of infertile women. This before/after controlled trial was conducted on 30 infertile women referring to in vitro fertilization ward of Mahdieh hospital of Tehran in 2018. Patients were randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. The intervention group underwent TA for 4 weeks while the control group only received the routine treatment. Data were gleaned from Four ENRICH Couples Scale and analyzed by the SPSS software version 22.0 using independent and paired t-tests. The results of the paired t test showed a significant difference between the 2 groups after the intervention (P = 0.001) compared to before the intervention while no significant change was observed in the control group (P = 0.789). In addition, independent t-test indicated no significant change in the control group after the intervention (P = 0.000) compared to before intervention (P = 0.949). In general, training in TA group behavioral therapy significantly increased marital satisfaction in the intervention group compared to the control group. Accordingly, the TA can serve as a useful treatment for infertile women. Therefore, psychological counseling and psychotherapy centers are recommended to be established and promoted in obstetric hospitals in order to improve the therapeutic course in infertile women.