Depression and Anxiety Among Infertile Moroccan Women: A Cross-Sectional Study in the Reproductive Health Center in Rabat

Abstract

Objective: To determine the prevalence and severity of depression and the level of anxiety among infertile Moroccan women in relation to sociodemographic and fertility-specific characteristics.Methods: It is a cross-sectional study including 274 infertile women attending the Assisted Reproductive Technology Unit in the Reproductive Health Center of the University Hospital Ibn Sina in Rabat between June 2017 and February 2018. Two psychological tests were applied, the Beck Depression Inventory and the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale. Then, the association between the test scores and age, educational level, employment status, type of infertility, duration of infertility, and causes of infertility was examined.Results: The study showed that 55% of the women had depression and 45.6% had mild to severe anxiety. Depression and anxiety scores were low in employed women compared to unemployed women (p=0.002; p=0.006). There was no significant relationship between depression and anxiety and women's age or type of infertility. Anxiety had a significant relationship with duration of infertility (p=0.015), cause of infertility (p=0.034) and educational level (p=0.006) while depression had no significant relationship with these factors.Conclusion: The study findings showed that depression and anxiety were present in infertile Moroccan women and both were significantly associated with employment status while only anxiety was associated with educational level, duration and causes of infertility.