Different dimensions of infertility phenomenon in the life of Iranian women: a systematic review study

Abstract

Introduction: Infertility and efforts to treat it are associated with tensions for couples. In Iran, infertility is a problem associated with many challenges, and women are more affected by these problems than men. The present study was conducted with aim to explain and analyze the lived experiences of infertile women based on the studies conducted in Iran during the last two decades. Methods: This study is a systematic review. The search strategy of this study is based on searching in databases of PubMed, Web of Science, Google Scholar and SID with Persian terms of qualitative studies or interview or lived experience or phenomenology and infertility or infertile women or infertile couples and the English equivalents of these words. became. Articles were evaluated using the CASP checklist; Finally, 21 articles that qualitatively and phenomenologically explained the lived experiences of infertile women from different perspectives entered into the study and evaluation of the composition and meta-analysis. Results: By putting together the main codes of the articles as primary codes and removing duplicates, 102 non-repeated codes were obtained, which were categorized in the form of 8 main themes including: general challenges of infertile women, reactions of infertile women, social and cultural aspects, cognitive aspects, psychological consequences of infertility, methods of dealing with psychological and social problems of infertility, factors affecting sexual behaviors, factors increasing and decreasing hope in infertile women with experience of failure in infertility treatment. Conclusion: The lived experiences of infertile women show that they face problems and sufferings in Iranian society. It seems that many aspects of the life of infertile women have not yet been explained and analyzed. At the same time, the role of demographic characteristics, cultures, ethnicities and family background in the analyzes has not been noticed by the researchers, that the need for more studies to design effective support programs according to the population policies of the country is more felt.

Keywords

• infertile women
• infertility
• systematic review