Role of Marital Relationship Quality in Emotional Disturbance and Personal Growth of Women with Infertility: A Cross-Sectional Study.

BACKGROUND: Infertility is a stressful condition that can lead to either emotional disturbance or personal growth. Marital relationship is one of the factors affecting the consequences of infertility. This study aimed to explore the role of marital relationship quality in development of women's personal growth after experiencing infertility. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In the cross-sectional study, 122 infertile women (mean age 28.79 ± 6.3) were invited to complete the survey, including ENRICH Marital Satisfaction Scale, Posttraumatic Growth, Fertility problem inventory, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and Beck Inventory Depression. RESULTS: Higher scores of quality of marital relationships were a protective factor against infertility stress and state/ trait anxiety. Additionally, infertility stress was a strong negative predictor of personal growth. Furthermore, infertile women with a high level of marital relationships may have more chances to experience personal growth rather than stress in infertility treatments. CONCLUSION: The study suggests that high quality of marital relationships may provide positive opportunities for women's personal growth after experiencing infertility.

Does infertility develop posttraumatic growth or anxiety/depressive symptoms? Roles of personality traits, resilience, and social support.

PURPOSE: This study aimed to explore levels of posttraumatic growth (PTG) and anxiety/depressive symptoms and the role of personality traits, resilience, and social support as predictors of PTG in infertile men/women. DESIGN AND METHODS: In our cross-sectional study, 162 infertile individuals (40 men and 122 women) completed the research questionnaires, including PTG, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Fertility Problem Inventory, NEO Five-Factor Inventory, Perceived Social Support, Kobasa hardiness short 20-item, and Beck Inventory Depression (BDI-II). RESULTS: The prevalence of PTG was higher than that of anxiety/depressive symptoms (55.6% vs. 45.7%/40.7%). Neuroticism (ß = 0.54 ± 0.25, p < 0.03), extroversion (ß = 0.69 ± 0.26, p < 0.01), and resilience (ß = 0.33 ± 0.12, p < 0.008) were positive predictors of PTG. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Infertile men/women with high level of resilience, extroversion, and neuroticism may have more tendency toward personal growth rather than distress. Practitioners ought to direct counseling to promote factors of personal growth.

Receptivity markers in endometrial mesenchymal stem cells of recurrent implantation failure and non-recurrent implantation failure women: A pilot study.

AIM: Endometrial mesenchymal stem cells (eMSC) have a vital role in regeneration of endometrium during menstrual cycles. Since it has been suggested that (eMSC) likely play a role in uterine receptivity and establishment of pregnancy, we aimed to evaluate the expression levels of five most known receptivity markers-Integrin (ITG) ß1, Rac1, HoxA11, ITGß3 and Noggin-in eMSC of recurrent implantation failure (RIF) and non-RIF women. METHODS: Human eMSC were isolated from menstrual blood (MB) of RIF and non-RIF women. The isolated eMSC characterized based on their morphological and behavioral characteristics, expression of MSC-specific surface CD markers and their capacity of differentiation into osteocytes and adipocytes. The expression levels of the five mentioned receptivity markers were analyzed with real time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS: Our findings revealed that RIF and non-RIF eMSC expressed all tested genes at different levels. ITGb1 expression in RIF eMSC was lower than its expression in non-RIF cells. On the other hand, all the other markers were expressed at higher levels in RIF eMSC than in non-RIF cells although only HOXA11 and ITG ß3 showed statistically significant (P < 0.05) higher expression levels. CONCLUSION: This pilot study on determination of the expression levels of uterine receptivity markers in eMSC interestingly indicated that RIF and non-RIF eMSC were different regarding the expression of these markers. Future studies using these findings can brighten up more the role of eMSC in the endometrium receptivity and establishment of pregnancy.

Differences between infertile women with and without PCOS in terms of anxiety, coping styles, personality traits, and social adjustment: a case-control study.

PURPOSE: The aim of the study was to identify differences in the level of anxiety, stress coping ways, personality traits, and social adjustments in infertile women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) compared to those without PCOS. METHODS: In a case-control study, 257 infertile of women were recruited at Fatemeh Azahra Infertility and Reproductive Health Research Center (Babol, Iran) from May 2016 to December 2017. A total of 135 women with PCOS and 122 women without PCOS completed the following questionnaires; State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WCQ), NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI), and Bell's Adjustment Inventory. RESULTS: Infertile women with PCOS had a higher mean score of trait anxiety than those without PCOS (46.19 ± 5.29 vs 44.49 ± 5.13, P = 0.004), but no difference was observed for state anxiety. The two groups did not have any significant differences in the mean scores of social adjustment and ways of coping, except for social support and problem-focused coping which were higher in the PCOS group. The PCOS personality traits of PCOS infertile women were not different regarding neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness. The only exception was that infertile PCOS women had a significantly higher mean score of openness to experience than those without PCOS (P = 0.049). CONCLUSIONS: Clinicians could take advantage of the psychological differences of infertile women with PCOS and without PCOS for better management of PCOS in infertility settings; despite higher levels of anxiety they are more likely to cope with stress and are welcome to new experiences.