A descriptive study to assess the level of depression among infertile couples undergoing assisted reproductive treatment at selected infertility clinic of Delhi

The stress of the non-fulfillment of a wish for a child has been associated with emotional consequence such as anger, depression, anxiety, marital problems, sexual dysfunction, and social isolation. The lifetime risk of depression in males is 8-12% and in females it is 20-26%. Methodology: A cross sectional survey approach was adopted in the study. The study was conducted among 300 couples (150 male and 150 female) diagnosed with infertility and undergoing treatment at ART center of quaternary care hospital at south west Delhi. Data collection was done by interview method using standard questionnaire using Beck depression Inventory. Results: It was observed that out of 300 samples, most of the samples 45.7% belong to the age group of 35-44 years. 76% of subjects had history of primary infertility and about 78% of couples did not had any children and nearly about 48.7% couple had 4 to 6 years duration of infertility. Majority of subjects 153(51%) had extreme levels of depression and around 141(47%) of infertile couple had severe levels of depression, and only 6(2%) of infertile couple had mild to moderate level of depression. Infertile couple had mean depression score of 41.57± 8.67(SD). The study also revealed that about 115(50.43%) couples with primary infertility had extreme levels of depression. The computed Chi value was 3.762, with (p value 0.152), shows that there is no considerable association between depression, and type of infertility. Majority of the samples 79(54.11%) with history of 4 to 6 years duration of infertility, had severe depression.62(51.67%) samples married for almost 3 years had severe depression, than those married for more than 10 years. The calculated Chi square value was 43.042 with (p value 0.001) significance. The present study concluded that infertile couples had high prevalence of depression, more prevalence was seen among female partners. There was significant association between selected socio demographic variable type of infertility and duration of infertility.