Ansiedade e Relacionamento Conjugal em Mulheres com Infertilidade: Impacto da Terapia de Grupo

Abstract

Millions of people around the world face difficulties to produce offspring due to fertility problems. This situation has very negative impact on the welfare of the individual, and it can cause feelings of loss, failure, and several negative emotional reactions, bringing an onset of anxiety. The couple’s relationship is always affected by infertility, however it appears that women experience more psychological symptoms than men. The authors point out that group therapy is an excellent therapeutic resource to use in infertility cases. Although no studies in this field have been found in Portugal, its research is of remarked importance. Moreover, having this in mind, a study was conducted to evaluate the impact of a nurse who conducted a group therapy of married women with infertility problems. As in for the methodology, a multiple case study was used, in which was developed an intervention conducted by two specialist nurses in mental health and psychiatry nursing. This intervention consisted in nine sessions of psychotherapeutic and psychoeducational group therapy, developed on a weekly basis. It was given emphasis to cognitive-behavioral therapy strategies to decrease anxiety, and communication strategies to improve marital relationship. As central instruments for evaluating the effectiveness of this study, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Portuguese version from Américo Baptista and validated to Portuguese population by Silva) and the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (Portuguese version from Pedro Nobre) were used. The intervention was developed with three women with infertility, yielding the following results: in all cases there was a decrease of the state of anxiety and in two of them also in trait anxiety; in respect to marital relationship, only two women benefited with the therapy performed.