Background & Aim: Infertility is a painful emotional experience that is associated with stress. The aim of this study was to determine relationship between percieved social support and infertility stress in the wives of infertile men.
Material & Methods: In this cross-sectional study performed on 83 wives of infertile men in 2016-2017, using the Newton Fertility Problem Inventory, infertiliy stress and its subscales, including social concern, sexual concern, relationshiop concern; rejection of childfree lifestyle; and, need for parenthood were determined. The information about percived social support was also collected using FSSQ. The data were analyzed using SPSS software.
Results: The results of this study showed that infertility stress was at a high level in most wives of infertile men, and percieved social support also had significant negative relationship with all subscales, including social concern (P < 0.01), sexual concern (P < 0.001), relationship concern (P < 0.001), rejection of childfree lifestyle (P < 0.01) need for parenthood (P < 0.05) and global stress (P < 0.001).
Conclusions: It seems that women are pron to stress in case of infertility, regardless of male or female factor. However, the level of this stress decreases with increasing perceived social support in the wives of infertile men. Thus, it may be possible to decrease the stress and concerns of these women by providing them more social support.
