Infertility and marital quality of life in couples (case study of infertile couples in Tehran)

The World Health Organization has mentioned infertility as a public health problem that can lead to depression, anxiety, social exclusion, and sexual disorders. This biological, psychological, and social crisis creates a defective cycle that weakens fertility and causes dysfunction in sexual performance and satisfaction. But do infertile couples in Tehran also experience such quality experiences in life?

The aim of this study was to investigate the phenomenon of infertility experience and the impact of this event on the marital quality of life in couples.

The research method was qualitative and phenomenological. It tried to examine and discover the lived experience of infertile couples by entering the phenomenological world. The population of the present study consisted of all couples with infertility experience who were referred to Royan Research Institute in 1400. The sampling method was purposeful according to most qualitative schemes in order to have phenomenological information, and the researcher based the obtained data on 15 Analyzed the Colaizzi method. The validity of the findings was confirmed by the re-coding method by expert professors.

Analyzing and coding the cognitive phenomenon by Colaizzi method, identified 36 sub-categories and according to their similarity and semantic similarity, in 7 main concepts including the couple and social suffering from child-free life, intellectual and emotional issues in the treatment path, suggestion of Divorce or polygamy, lack of empathy and compatibility of those around the couple, isolation and apathy of the couple, increase in anxiety and stress of the couple, decrease in the quality of the marital relationship, decrease in the financial security of the couple are categorized.

The results showed that the phenomenon of infertility, in line with previous research, is associated with a noticeable decrease in the marital quality of life in couples in Tehran city and has created important issues, including the possibility of separation and divorce, coldness of relationships, decreased motivation, intellectual, emotional and social challenges, which are necessarily paying attention to the reduction of these cases is felt in order to increase the marital quality of life in these couples.