TY - JOUR
T1 - Infertility treatment and fertility-specific distress
T2 - A longitudinal analysis of a population-based sample of U.S. women
AU - Greil, Arthur L.
AU - McQuillan, Julia
AU - Lowry, Michele
AU - Shreffler, Karina M.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by grant R01-HD044144 “Infertility: Pathways and Psychosocial Outcomes” funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development . An earlier version of this manuscript was presented at the 2011annual meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society, Philadelphia, PA.
PY - 2011/7/1
Y1 - 2011/7/1
N2 - Because research on infertile women usually uses clinic-based samples of treatment seekers, it is difficult to sort out to what extent distress is the result of the condition of infertility itself and to what extent it is a consequence of the experience of infertility treatment. We use the National Survey of Fertility Barriers, a two-wave national probability sample of U.S. women, to disentangle the effects of infertility and infertility treatment on fertility-specific distress. Using a series of ANOVAs, we examine 266 infertile women who experienced infertility both at Wave 1 and at Wave 2, three years later. We compare eight groups of infertile women based on whether or not they have received treatment and on whether or not they have had a live birth. At Wave 1, infertile women who did not receive treatment and who had no live birth reported lower distress levels than women who received treatment at Wave 1 only, regardless of whether their infertility episode was followed by a live birth. At Wave 2, women who received no treatment have significantly lower fertility-specific distress than women who were treated at Wave 1 or at Waves 1 and 2, regardless of whether there was a subsequent live birth. Furthermore, fertility-specific distress did not increase over time among infertile women who did not receive treatment. The increase infertility-specific distress was significantly higher for women who received treatment at Wave 2 that was not followed by a live birth than for women who received no treatment or for women who received treatment at Wave 1 only. These patterns suggest that infertility treatment is associated with levels of distress over and above those associated with the state of being infertile in and of itself.
AB - Because research on infertile women usually uses clinic-based samples of treatment seekers, it is difficult to sort out to what extent distress is the result of the condition of infertility itself and to what extent it is a consequence of the experience of infertility treatment. We use the National Survey of Fertility Barriers, a two-wave national probability sample of U.S. women, to disentangle the effects of infertility and infertility treatment on fertility-specific distress. Using a series of ANOVAs, we examine 266 infertile women who experienced infertility both at Wave 1 and at Wave 2, three years later. We compare eight groups of infertile women based on whether or not they have received treatment and on whether or not they have had a live birth. At Wave 1, infertile women who did not receive treatment and who had no live birth reported lower distress levels than women who received treatment at Wave 1 only, regardless of whether their infertility episode was followed by a live birth. At Wave 2, women who received no treatment have significantly lower fertility-specific distress than women who were treated at Wave 1 or at Waves 1 and 2, regardless of whether there was a subsequent live birth. Furthermore, fertility-specific distress did not increase over time among infertile women who did not receive treatment. The increase infertility-specific distress was significantly higher for women who received treatment at Wave 2 that was not followed by a live birth than for women who received no treatment or for women who received treatment at Wave 1 only. These patterns suggest that infertility treatment is associated with levels of distress over and above those associated with the state of being infertile in and of itself.
KW - Fertility-specific distress
KW - Infertility
KW - Infertility treatment
KW - Longitudinal women
KW - USA
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=79959604545&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.04.023
DO - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.04.023
M3 - Article
C2 - 21645954
AN - SCOPUS:79959604545
SN - 0277-9536
VL - 73
SP - 87
EP - 94
JO - Social Science and Medicine
JF - Social Science and Medicine
IS - 1
ER -