The association between coping method and distress in infertile woman: A cross-sectional study from Turkey

OBJECTIVES To assess the distress level in infertile women and their coping skills. METHODS One hundred and twenty-seven infertile women who had been referred to the Family Planning and Infertility Research and Practice Center (IRPC) of a university hospital to receive therapy between June 2012-2013 were enrolled in this study. Several surveys, including the "Infertile Woman Identification Form", the "Infertility Distress Scale (IDS)" and the "Ways of Coping Inventory (WCI)," were used as data collection tools. RESULTS The mean age of the women who participated in the study was 32.34 ± 5.44. They had been on therapy for 3.95 ± 3.21 years and had been referred for therapy 2.73 ± 1.76 times. The mean score of the IDS was determined to be 37.0 ± 9.7 (23-66), and the mean score of the WCI subscale was 1.86 ± 0.55 (0.5-3.0). In the IDS and WCI subscales, statistically significant negative relationships were detected between "Optimism" (r=-0.327), "Seeking Social Support" (r=-0.255), and "Self-Confidence" (r=-0.305), whereas there were statistically significant positive relationships between "Helplessness" (r=0.376) and "Submissiveness" (r=0.278) (p<0.01). CONCLUSION The women who developed negative coping strategies had higher infertility distress scores than other women.