Sielkundige aspekte van infertiliteitspasiënte by die aanvang van infertiliteitsintervensies

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The primary purpose of the present study was tocreate a profile of thepsychological aspects presented by infertility patients of both genders before the commencement of each new phase of clinical intervention. The researched variables were constructed in such a way that negative as well as positive aspects of each patient involved would be reflected. The negative variables, which were classified as risk factors,included depression, anxiety, general mental health and the presence or absence of happiness. The positive variables (protective factors) included variables concerning resilience, namely life-contentment and general psychological well-being. General psychological wellbeing included specific aspects, such as self-acceptance, autonomy, positive relationships with others, purpose in life, environmental mastery and personal growth.The cognitive aspects (thought processes) included variables, such as hope and intrusive thoughts. In the present study intrusive thoughts referred specifically to distraction, socialcontrol, worry, punishment, and reappraisal. The secondary purpose was to ascertain whether these variables would beable to indicate to which degree a diagnosis of infertility could have a positive or negative effect on a person, could possibly lead to emotional problems, and howthe person should be treated optimally during treatment. The psychological aspects present in men and women were also compared to give the therapist/physician a better understanding of gender differences. A descriptive research design was used. In this cross-sectional study, one-off survey research was executed in order to evaluate the infertility patients before the start of infertility intervention. The measuring instruments were six self-report questionnaires and a demographic questionnaire. The 116 participants, (87 women and 29 men) completed the following self-report questionnaires: 'General Health Questionnaire (GHQ28), 'Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (OHQ), 'State of Hope Scale (SHS), 'ThoughtControl Questionnaire(TCQ), 'Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS), and the 'Ryff Psychological Well-Being Scale (Ryff PWB).The study implies that the diagnosis of infertility can be made using the biopsychosocial model and the psychosocial resilience model to account for medical well-being as framework. Due to the complexity of infertility, specific phases of infertility should not be emphasised and risk factors solely attended to. Infertility should be regarded more globally.The present study reflected that before treatment was started, the home-plan/ovulation-induction group (HP/OI) (1) was more at risk concerning depression and anxiety; (2) uncontrolled thoughts of worry and anxiety were present concomitantly, and (3) there was a risk concerning protective factors. The intracytoplasmic sperm-injection/in vitro-fertilisation group (ICSI/IVF) was at risk regarding anxiety and intrusive thoughts. The artificial-insemination group (AI) possibly had unrealistic expectations before the commencement of the first treatment and risk factors (thought-control processes and protective factors) tested disproportionately high. It could thus be said that the specific cause of infertility well may influence psychological aspects before treatment starts. Infertility should be diagnosed in totality, taking into account the biological as well as the psychological aspects of the infertility patient. To be able to present an optimal diagnosis of infertility and to optimise a prognosis, patients have to be psychologically evaluated before treatment is started.This opens the field to further research with larger samples and particular attention paid to thought-control processes, protective factors and causes of infertility.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University