Prevalence of Depression and Its Related Factors in Infertile Women Referred to an Infertility Treatment Center in Ardabil, 2022

Infertility is one of the unfortunate events of life, which is associated with various personal, social, mental, physical, and financial pressures and can put couples, especially women, at high risk of psychological disorders. The current study aims to determine the prevalence of depression and its related factors in infertile women in Ardabil, Iran.

This is a descriptive study with a cross-sectional design. Participants were 100 infertile women referred to an infertility treatment center in Ardabil city. For all participants, information related to age, educational level, place of residence, occupation, family income level, duration of marriage, duration of infertility, type of infertility, history of abortion, and history of taking antidepressants were first recorded. Their depression was measured by the Beck depression inventory.

The prevalence of depression was 52%. There was a significant difference in depression in terms of age ((P=0.006, 95%CI: 1.4-7.3, OR = 3.2), occupation (P=0.042, 95%CI: 1-6.2, OR = 2.5), duration of marriage (P=0.001, 95%CI: 1.7-9.7, OR= 4.1), infertility period (P< 0.001, 95% CI: 1.9-10.5, OR = 4.5), infertility type (P=0.013, 95%CI: 1.2-7.9, OR = 3.1), and history of abortion (P = 0.021, 95%CI: 1.2-10.5, OR=3.5). 

More than half of infertile women in Ardabil have different degrees of depression. The depression is significantly higher in those older than 30 years, housewives, those with marriage and infertility duration >5 years, those with primary infertility, and those with a history of abortion.