Coping Strategies and Perceived Stress in Infertile Couples

Background: Infertility can lead to major bio-psychological disorders. Coping strategies help individuals adapt to unpredictable conditions in a systematic way. The present study aimed to determine the perceived stress of couples undergoing treatment for infertility, as well as their coping strategies and correlation between the studied variables and gender.  Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted on 140 infertile couples undergoing infertility treatment at the Infertility Center of Yazd, Yazd City, Iran. The relevant data were collected by Perceived Stress Scale and Billings and Moos’s Coping Responses Inventory. Then, the obtained data were analyzed by descriptive statistics (relative frequency percentage, mean and standard deviation), Pearson correlation coefficient and regression analysis in SPSS.  Results: The obtained results suggest that the mean score of perceived stress is higher in women. Moreover, women more frequently use problem-focused mechanisms, while men more frequently use emotion-focused mechanisms. In both men and women, a positive significant relationship exist between positive perceived stress and coping mechanisms; the former predicted the latter. While, the mean scores for avoidant and behavioral coping mechanisms were higher in men, the mean scores for cognitive coping mechanisms were higher in women (P<0.05). However, women achieved higher scores for both problem-focused and emotion-focused strategies. Conclusion: there is a significant and positive correlation between perceived stress and coping mechanisms in both sexes. In addition, stress predicts the kind of coping strategies in these people. On the whole, psychiatric approach and counseling may enhance the mental health of infertile couples and increase the chance of success in this costly treatment.