The Unbearable Psychological Burden of Infertility on Women: A Qualitative Study

Background: Infertility has become an important public health problem in developing countries due to its high prevalence. Infertility is a difficult crisis situation with psychological and spiritual dimensions.
Aims: The aim of this study was to determine the psychological burden of infertility treatment process in women.
Methods: This research was designed as a descriptive qualitative study. This study was conducted in a governmental hospital's infertility outpatient clinic in Istanbul, Turkey. Twenty participants participated in the face-to-face, in-depth interview technique used to gather the research data. A semi-structured interview and a comprehensive information form were used to gather data.
Results: In line with the interviews with the participants, 2 main themes, 9 sub-themes and 12 codes for the sub-themes were determined as the findings obtained based on the content analysis in the study, positive religious behaviors and negative religious behaviors.
Conclusions: In our study, it was found that women felt unhappy, hopeless and helpless and could not accept not being able to have children.