A Study of Couple Burnout in Infertile Couples.

INTRODUCTION Infertility is a major crisis that can cause psychological problems and emotionally distressing experiences, and eventually affect a couples' relationship. The objective of this study is to investigate couple burnout in infertile couples who were undergoing treatmentat the Infertility Clinic of Yazd, Iran. METHOD The present study is a cross-sectional descriptive one on 98 infertile couples referringto the Infertility Centerof Yazd, Iran, who were chosen on a simple random sampling basis. The measuring tools consisted of the Couple Burnout Measure (CBM) and a demographic questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 16 and the statistical tests of ANOVA and t-test.P-values less than 0.05 were considered as significant. RESULTS The results show that infertile women experience higher levels of couple burnout than their husbands (p<0.001). Also, a comparison of the scales of couple burnout--psychological burnout (p<0.01), somatic burnout (p<0.01), and emotional burnout (p<0.001)--between wives and husbands show that women are at greater risk. CONCLUSION Infertile couples' emotional, mental, and sexual problems need to be addressed as part of the infertility treatment programs, and psychotherapists should be included in the medical team.