• The Journal of Korean Obstetrics and Gynecology
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.56-67
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• 2017

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to elucidate infertility women's experience in psychological stress and to suggest effective infertility stress management methods. Methods: Twenty five infertility women who participate in Korean Medicine Pilot Project for Infertility completed questionnaires and Infertility Stress Scale, also, we have interviewed. Results: The Mean degree of stress of the infertile women was 2.24 point with Infertility Stress Scale. In focused interview, the infertility stress was considered to be within the aspects of intra and interpersonal. In regards to intrapersonal aspect, infertility women described the grief with lowered self-esteem and anxiety with obsession for fertility. As for the interpersonal aspect, infertility women were distressed by the relationship with spouse and in-laws, as well as friend and the public. Conclusions: Doctors in infertility clinic need to consider infertility stress of their patients and conduct effective intervention.

• The Journal of Korean Obstetrics and Gynecology
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.85-100
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• 2023

Objectives: To evaluate stress patterns and coping abilities in women with infertility by conducting in-depth interviews. Methods: Ten women with infertility who visited the Korean Medicine Hospital and provided consent after being informed of the purpose and method of the study were selected after meeting the inclusion/exclusion criteria. They were requested to complete a preliminary questionnaire developed by the researchers, the Infertility Stress Scale, and the Korean version of the Fertility Problem Inventory (FPI). Subsequently, each participant was interviewed individually. Results: The preliminary questionnaire was used to evaluate sensitivity to each type of infertility-related stress and ability to express and resolve it. Among all infertility stress types, the largest proportion, accounting for an average of 47.5±26.95%, was that felt by the patient herself. Considering stress awareness intensity, the stress felt by the patient was the highest, with an average score of 4.30±0.64. Relative stress sensitivity due to infertility was the highest, with an average score of 3.90±0.94. Compared with general work stress, the average ability to relieve stress related to problems with spouses was the highest, with a score of 2.50±1.20. The average Infertility Stress Scale score was 2.88±1.35 and FPI score was 2.87±2.52. Conclusions: The highest stress scores were observed for the following items: meaning of children, need for parenthood, and stress due to the diagnosis of infertility. The lowest stress scores were allocated to the item concerning relationships with friends and co-workers. Based on the in-depth interviews conducted after the survey, stress in women with infertility may be classified as emotional, physical, and economic. Thus, the requirement for providing appropriate psychological and emotional support depending on the stress type in addition to general medical treatment for infertility treatment was confirmed.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.93-104
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• 2016

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship among infertility stress, depression and Resilience of infertile women during infertility treatment. Methods: As a descriptive study, we surveyed 129 infertile women in 1 fertility center from November 2014 to January 2015. The data was analyzed in SPSS WIn 18.0 program. Results: Infertility stress, depression, and resilience averaged $3.23{\pm}.32$ (range of scale 1~6), $1.42{\pm}.39$ (range of scale 1~4), and $3.45{\pm}.35$ (range of scale 1~5), respectively. There was significant difference in infertility stress by job, abortion experience after pregnancy with infertility treatments, anxiety of high risk pregnancy, burden of pregnancy, important of having child. There was significant difference in depression by job, Economy burden on infertility treatment, burden of pregnancy. Infertility stress had a positive correlation with depression (r=.192. p<.029) Resilience had a negative correlation with depression (r=-.349. p<.001). Conclusion: It is necessary to provide infertile women with the counseling on their infertility stress and depression, and the intervention programs for infertile women is expected to help them cope and adapt with their personal and marital problems, reduce their negative emotions, and thus promote their quality of life.

• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.36-50
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• 1999

The purpose of this study was determine the relationship between social support and the infertility stress of infertile women. The subjects for this were 64 infertile women living in S city, Kyung Book Province. The data was collected during $4^{th}$ July and $14^{th}$ August, 1988 using the social support scale developed by Park(1985) and the infertility stress scale developed by Kim et. al.(1995) The data analysis was done by descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient and stepwise multiple regression using SPSS PC program. The results were as follows. 1. The mean of social support of the infertile women was 3.80. 2. The negative correlation was revealed between social support and the infertility stress(r=-.56, p=.001). 3. Research has revealed that the support need of social support was a predictor of the infertility stress of the infertile women, explaining 30.9% of total variance. 4. the general characteristic variable significantly related to the level of the infertility stress of the infertile women was marriage satisfaction(t=-3.28, p=.004). The results of this study suggest that social support is related to the infertility stress of the infertile women. Therefore, The nurse is recommended to apply supportive intervention in caring for infertile women.

• 대한생식의학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2000.06a
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• pp.37-42
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• 2000

Objective: To determine whether particular semen characteristics in various clinical diagnoses of infertility are associated with high oxidative stress and whether any group of infertile men is more likely to have high seminal oxidative stress. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) play an important role in sperm physiological functions, but elevated levels of ROS or oxidative stress are related to male infertility. Design: Measurement of sperm concentration, motility, morphology, seminal ROS, and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) in patients seeking infertility treatment and controls. Setting: Male infertility clinic of a tertiary care center. Patient(s): One hundred sixty-seven infertile patients and 19 controls. Intervention(s): None. Main Outcome Measure(s): Semen characteristics, seminal ROS, and TAC in samples from patients with various clinical diagnoses and controls. Result(s): Fifteen patients (9.0%) were Endtz positive and 152(91.0%) Endtz negative. Sperm concentration, motility, and morphology were significantly reduced in all groups compared with the controls (P = .02), except in varicocele associated With infection group. Mean (${\pm}$SD) ROS levels in patient groups ranged from 2.2 ${\pm}$ 0.13 to 3.2 ${\pm}$ 0.35, signilicantly higher than controls (1.3 ${\pm}$ 0.3; P<.005). Patient groups had a significantly lower mean (${\pm}$SD) TAC from 1014.75 ${\pm}$ 79.22 to 1173.05 ${\pm}$ 58.07 than controls (1653 ${\pm}$ 115.28, P<.001), except ill the vaseclony reversal group (1532.02 ${\pm}$ 74.24). Sperm concentration was negatively correlated with ROS both overall and within all groups (P${\leq}$.007), with the exception of idiopathic infertility. Conclusion(s): Irrespective of the clinical diagnosis and semen characteristics, the presence of seminal oxidative stress in infertile men suggests its role in the pathophysiology of infertility. Medical or surgical treatments for infertility in these men should include strategies to reduce oxidative stress.

• Human Ecology Research
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• v.59 no.4
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• pp.465-475
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• 2021

The purpose of this study was to examine actor and partner effects among infertile couples in determining whether self-esteem affects the degree of infertility-related stress via perceived spousal support. The sample comprised 219 couples who experienced infertility, each of whom completed an online survey. To analyze the data, descriptive statistics, t-test, correlation analysis and APIM (Actor-Partner Interdependence Model) were performed using SPSS 25.0 and Mplus 7.3 program. The main results were as follows. First, the actor effect of spousal support on self-esteem was significant in both husbands and wives. Second, the actor effects of spousal support on infertility-related stress and self-esteem on infertility stress were significant only in husbands. Third, in the association between husbands' and wives' spousal support and infertility-related stress, three mediating pathways via husband's self-esteem were found to be significant. Based on these results, the necessity for a couple-level analysis in infertility research, psycho-emotional interventions for infertile couples, and implications for follow-up studies were discussed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Embryo Transfer Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.97-97
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• 2003

• The Journal of Korean Obstetrics and Gynecology
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.105-120
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• 2022

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to investigate the perception of Korean Medicine (KM) doctors toward infertility treatment evaluation tools and develop a standard evaluation tool for mental and physical function improvement following Korean medicine treatment. Methods: An online survey (Moaform) was conducted, and responses were analyzed for members of the Society of Korean Medicine Obstetrics and Gynecology and KM doctors who participated in the 2021-2022 traditional Korean medicine treatment infertility support program in Gyeonggi-do. Results: In fertility treatment, the most effective indicators that KM doctors wanted to evaluate other than pregnancy and childbirth were reproductive health indicators, overall health improvement, and stress improvement (33.1%, 21.2%, 18.9%). Furthermore, 45.1% of the respondents had experience using the presented infertility stress evaluation tools. For each evaluation tool, 52.1% and 54.6% of the respondents answered that it 'does not reflect the changing circumstances of the times' and that there were 'too many questions'. As for the developing a standard evaluation tool for infertility treatment in KM, KM doctors expected a simple and clear tool focusing on the pregnancy rate. They also wanted the tool to include a reproductive health index, overall function improvement and stress improvements. Conclusions: The survey confirmed the need to evaluate indicators for reproductive health, mental health, and infertility stress in addition to pregnancy rate to assess the effectiveness of KM infertility treatment. It also confirms the necessity of developing an infertility stress evaluation tool with simplified questions that reflects the changing time.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.11 no.8
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• pp.107-113
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• 2020

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the relationships between social support and infertility stress in infertile men. Method: Participants were 120 infertile men in a hospital located S city Korea. The structured questionnaire included social support scale, fertility problem inventory scale. The data were examined using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, and Pearson's correlation with SPSS 25.0. Results: Social support was significantly correlated with infertility stress(r=-.32, p=<.001). Conclusion: Based on this study, infertility stress could be decreased by social support improvement in infertile men. Theses results suggests that infertile men need nursing intervention to minimize infertility stress by promoting social support.

• 대한생식의학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2000.06a
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• pp.29-35
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• 2000

The imbalance between reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) in seminal fluid indicates oxidative stress and is correlated with male infertility. A composite ROS-TAC score may be more strongly correlated with infertility than ROS or TAC alone. We measured ROS, TAC, and ROS-TAC scores in semen from 127 patients and 24 healthy controls. Of the patients, 56 had varicocele, eight had varicocele with prostatitis, 35 had vasectomy reversals, and 28 had Idiopathic infertility. ROS levels were higher among infertile men, especially those with varicocele with prostatitis (mean ${\pm}$ SE, 3.25 ${\pm}$ 0.89) and vasectomy reversals (2.65 ${\pm}$ 1.01). All infertility groups had significantly lower ROS-TAC scores than control. ROS-TAC score identified 80% of patients and was significantly better than ROS at identifying varicocele and idiopathic infertility. The 13 patients whose partners later achieved pregnancies had a mean ROS-TAC score of 47.7 ${\pm}$ 13.2, similar to controls but significantly higher than the 39 patients who remained infertile (35.8 ${\pm}$ 15.0; P < 0.01). ROS-TAC score is a novel measure of oxidative stress and Is superior to ROS or TAC alone in discriminating between fertile and infertile men. Infertile men with male factor or idiopathic diagnoses had significantly lower ROS-TAC scores than controls, and men with male factor diagnoses that eventually were able to initiate a successful pregnancy had significantly higher ROS-TAC scores than those who failed.