Impact of social support on infertile couples

Headnote

Key words: Infertility, Social support.

P-210

Introduction: Infertility is a medical condition that affects emotional and socioeconomic dimensions of infertile couples and these factors, subsequently, influence the consequences of infertility treatments. Social support is an important factor that can promote mental and physical health and manage the effects of stress. This review assesses the impact of social support on various aspects of infertility.

Materials and Methods: This article reviews the literature published from 2000-2014 in Sciencedirect and PubMed databases by using keywords [social support, psychosocial support, infertility] in the title and abstracts.

Results: Among 88 articles, 23 literatures were selected. Results of studies in terms of perceived social support indicates that women more than men seek social support and also received more social support from family and friends so less suffer from treatment failure. During treatment, lack of social support is associated with higher stress; anxiety; depression; hopelessness; stigma; relationship, sexual and social problems; lower self-esteem, quality of life and compliance. Also it can causemaking the decision to cut the treatments. In pregnancy through IVF, Social support lead to better mother and fetus attachment, more PTG and less postpartum depression but it has no effect on the relationship between mother and infant in the postpartum period. Lower social support in women with HIV also causes less following the treatment.

Conclusion: Social support can directly or indirectly affect various aspects of life in infertile couples. So paying attention to this important aspect of health is the path to improve the outcomes of infertility.