Learning Objective #1: Identify the importance of psychological and social impacts on couples suffering from infertility

Learning Objective #2: Discuss the importance of nurse’s role in helping couples suffering from psychosocial impacts due to infertility

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Infertility is defined as a failure to conceive after one year of unprotected intercourse. Dealing with infertility is a global issue. However, globally the pervasiveness of infertility is 10% to 15%, whereas, its prevalence in Pakistan remains at 22%.

The study aims to explore the experiences of psychosocial consequences of infertile couples in the developing countries.

Systemic searches of PUBMED and CINAHL yielded 100 researches of which 25 met the inclusion criteria of couples of developing countries stigmatized socially and affected psychologically. To select articles the key words inserted were, “psychological effects”, “social stigmatization” and “infertile couples”.

Through a systemic review, 25 research articles of developing countries, published between January 2003 and December 2007 in international index journals were reviewed.

Almost all the articles reviewed reported that there was a significant social and psychological effect on infertile couples. The social effects include arguments between the couples, divorce threats, remarrying of husbands and physical abuse of the women. Women are not accepted in their families, and friends. Similarly, infertile men are not respected by friends, family and the community. At times they are denied work and excluded from leadership roles. The psychological effects for both men and women include low self esteem, insecurity and lack of self confidence which are manifested as irritability, insomnia and tension which may remain for long.

In conclusion, infertile couples are stigmatized which is a cause of stress for the couples. This affects couple's social, physical and psychological wellbeing. As a result of this review a self-made model was generated which will be tested in future studies for assessing generalizations.

There is limited research available on the psychosocial impact of infertility on couples in the developing countries. Therefore, further studies are required on psychosocial impact of infertility on couples in developing countries.