The Role of Spiritual Experiences in Feeling of Failure and Infertility Stress among Infertile Women

Although infertility is a multifaceted problem and leads to various psychological problems in infertile women, issues such as religious and spiritual dimensions of infertility have not received much attention despite the growth of literature focusing on the medical, psychological, social, and cultural consequences of infertility. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the role of spiritual experiences in the feeling of failure and infertility stress in infertile women living in Birjand, Iran.

This descriptive-correlational study was conducted on all infertile women referring to Royesh Infertility Center, Birjand, in the spring of 2020.  The subjects of this study (n=120) were selected using convenience sampling and completed the questionnaires of the Infertility Stress Scale, Defeat Scale, and Spiritual Experience Scale. The inclusion criteria were being diagnosed with infertility based on medical records, aging from 25-45 years, having the minimum literacy level, having an infertility period of one year or more, and being willing to enter the study. On the other hand, the exclusion criteria were the non-cooperation of the participants and the incompleteness of the questionnaires. The collected data were analyzed in SPSS software (version 22) using mean and standard deviation for descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regression analysis for inferential statistics.

Based on the findings, spiritual experiences had a significant inverse relationship with feelings of failure and infertility stress (P-value<0.001). Moreover, the variable of spiritual experiences could explain 53.3% and 47% of the variances of failure and stress of infertility, respectively (P-value<0.001).

The results showed that an increase in spiritual experiences would lead to a decrease in the feelings of failure and stress of infertility. Consequently, it can be said that spiritual experiences are a kind of adaptation and problem-solving strategies that result in the achievement of harmony, internal and external integration, and resolving life crises.