Depression amongst the infertile women attending outpatient department of a tertiary care hospital in Kerala: A hospital based study

Background: Infertility is one of the important and major problems in reproductive health. One of the major problems that concomitants with infertility is depression. Various factors play a role in causing depression. Infertility affects the emotional, mental, and physical aspects of the couples’ health . Apart from all these problems the couples trying to conceive also face many financial challenges, as the treatment may involve expensive drugs and procedures. Objectives: To assess the depression amongst the infertile women attending outpatient department of a tertiary care hospital. Methods: The current study is a Cross-sectional descriptive study and the prevalence of depression was assessed by Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) Scale. Results: In the present study majority of the participants i.e. 44% belonged to the age group of 31-35 years, followed by the age group of 26-30 years which was 32%, 14% of the participants belonged to the 18-25 years age group and 10% belonged to the age group of more than 35 years. In the present study, the mean age of study participants increased as the severity of the depression increased. Women with the higher age group had severe depression, although it was not statistically significant. As the duration of the married life increased the severity of the depression also increased, this was statistically significant with a p-value of less than 0. 001. As the Infertility duration in years increased the severity of the depression increased, this was statistically significant with a p-value of less than 0.001.