The effectiveness of psychological empowerment therapy and dialectical behavior therapy on infertility stress of infertile women in pretreatment stage of in vitro fertilization

Infertility treatment methods, despite having successful results, are associated with psychological consequences and high levels of stress in infertile women. This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of psychological empowerment package and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) on infertility stress of infertile women in the pretreatment phase of In Vitro Fertilization (IVF).

The present research employed a pretest-posttest and 45-day follow-up control group quasi-experimental design with three groups. The sample size consisted of 45 infertile women seeking IVF treatment referred to infertility centers in Isfahan city, selected via a convenience sampling method based on the inclusion criteria. Then they were randomly assigned to two experimental and one control groups (each with 15 participants). Experimental groups participated in psychological empowerment therapy and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). To measure the dependent variable of infertility Stress, Infertility Stress Inventory (Newton et al., 1999) was administered to three groups in three research phases. The data were analyzed using the repeated measures ANOVA and through SPSS version: 24.

The results showed that only psychological empowerment therapy has had a significant effect on infertility stress (P<0.001). Bonferroni post hoc test revealed that psychological empowerment therapy was more effective in reducing infertility stress than Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT).

As the research results indicate, psychological empowerment therapy is a good method to reduce infertility stress of infertile women, in the pretreatment phase of IVF.