Abstract: Background: Depression is the most common mental health problem in women with infertility worldwide. In India, depression may be more associated with infertility because of social stigma as children are considered to be highly valued to move the next generation.
Methods: The aim of the study was to determine the presence and severity of depression, related to infertility in women. With informed consent 101 infertile women, coming for workup and treatment were included in the study. Data regarding socio-demographic information including age, educational level, occupation, socioeconomic status, duration of married life, and type of primary or secondary infertility were collected. The responses of patients were collected after explaining the Beck Depression Inventories (BDI-II) questionnaires to access the severity of depression in the language of patients by the interpreter.
Results: Mean (standard deviation) and median age (years) of the women 29.44±4.52 yrs and 29 (range: 21-40) with most of the subjects 34.70% (35/101) were within 25-30 years of age group. Analysis of the patient responses regarding the severity of depression with BDII scoring found that 41.60% had minimal depression and 32.70% had moderate depression. The remaining 16.8% and 8.9% of the subjects were suffering from mild and severe depression respectively.
Conclusion: The study found that infertile women had a variable level of depression. The maximum patients had minimal to moderate depression. The depression was more in elder age, unemployed, low-income group women with married life for more than fifteen years.
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