Psycho - social effects of male infertility in Iranian women: a qualitative study

Despite the fact that women and men are equally the cause of infertility, however, due to social prejudices, infertility is considered a female problem and that is why even in male factor infertility, women usually face with more social and family problems and bear the main burden of infertility. Therefore, recognizing their issues in this field would be of the utmost importance and may determine the social consequences of this phenomenon for women; so, this study was performed with aim to determine the psycho-social effects of male infertility in Iranian women.
This qualitative study was carried out using conventional content analysis. Data collection was conducted using 30 individual in-depth semi-structured interviews. Participants were selected through purposeful sampling until reaching to information … among the women who their husbands were infertile. All interviews were recorded and typed word by word. Data were analyzed using MAXqda software and conventional content analysis.
Data analysis emerged one main category: "Perceived family and community stresses" and 3 sub-categories of "Abusive behavior of family and others" (including subcategories of "Spying and interference", "Reception label and blame", "being rejected", "facing with misunderstandings of family and others" and "The sense of discrimination"), "The presence in specific populations" and "feeling of lack of social support.
The women whose husbands are infertile experience much tension in their social communications. What is more thinkable in this issue is that in male factor infertility, the woman is responsible for infertility and her childlessness causes negative behaviors and beliefs from the family and society which can have adverse consequences for women.