Peterson Brennan, Taubman-Ben-Ari Orit, Chiu Bonnie, Brown Douglas, Frederick David A
Crean College of Health and Behavioral Sciences, Department of Marriage and Family Therapy, Chapman University, One University Drive, Orange, CA, 92688, USA.
School of Social Work, Faculty of Social Sciences, Bar-Ilan University, 5290002, Ramat-Gan, Israel.
Reprod Health. 2025 Jan 25;22(1):7. doi: 10.1186/s12978-025-01951-0.
Stigma is the experience of feeling different from socially accepted norms which can lead to personal devaluation or fear of disapproval from others. For men and women experiencing infertility, stigma has been associated with psychological distress, feelings of otherness in relation to people with children, and selective disclosure with others about their infertility challenges. However, there are few studies which examine how infertility stigma and being open with others are related to depressive symptoms and meaning in life for men and women diagnosed with infertility.
Participants experiencing infertility were recruited for this cross-sectional study during November 2023-January 2024 via announcements on infertility discussion listservs and social media accounts. Four-hundred fifty-eight women and 89 men completed an online survey. Participants were primarily from the United States (81%), followed by Europe, Canada, and Australia/New Zealand. Participants completed validated and reliable measures of infertility stigma, openness with others, depressive symptoms and meaning in life.
Hierarchical regression models explained substantial variance (adjusted R-squared) for depressive symptoms (41% men; 27% women), search for meaning in life (12% men; 14% women), and presence of meaning in life (19% men; 25% women). For both men and women, higher personal infertility stigma was significantly related with higher depressive symptoms and search for meaning. For both men and women, higher openness with others about infertility was significantly associated with lower levels of depressive symptoms and greater presence of meaning.
The current findings support prior research indicating a significant association between infertility stigma and depressive symptoms and adds to the infertility literature by offering new insights into the relationships between stigma, openness with others, and meaning in life. Health care providers can use these findings to assist individuals and couples in reducing infertility stigma through collaborative conversations that reduce feelings of personal failure. Providers can also help those with infertility challenges to reduce psychological distress and increase meaning in life through accessing existing social networks and expanding social connections with others in ways that facilitate support.
污名是一种感觉自己与社会公认规范不同的体验，这可能导致个人贬值或害怕他人的不认可。对于经历不孕不育的男性和女性来说，污名与心理困扰、与有孩子的人相比的异类感以及向他人选择性披露自己的不孕不育挑战有关。然而，很少有研究探讨不孕不育污名以及与他人坦诚相待如何与被诊断为不孕不育的男性和女性的抑郁症状及生活意义相关。
2023年11月至2024年1月期间，通过不孕不育讨论邮件列表和社交媒体账号发布的公告，招募了经历不孕不育的参与者参与这项横断面研究。458名女性和89名男性完成了一项在线调查。参与者主要来自美国（81%），其次是欧洲、加拿大和澳大利亚/新西兰。参与者完成了关于不孕不育污名、与他人坦诚相待、抑郁症状和生活意义的经过验证且可靠的测量。
层次回归模型解释了抑郁症状（男性41%；女性27%）、寻求生活意义（男性12%；女性14%）和生活意义的存在（男性19%；女性25%）的大量方差（调整后的R平方）。对于男性和女性来说，更高的个人不孕不育污名都与更高的抑郁症状和寻求意义显著相关。对于男性和女性来说，更高程度地与他人坦诚相待谈论不孕不育与更低水平的抑郁症状和更大程度的生活意义存在显著相关。
目前的研究结果支持了先前的研究，表明不孕不育污名与抑郁症状之间存在显著关联，并通过提供关于污名、与他人坦诚相待和生活意义之间关系的新见解，为不孕不育文献增添了内容。医疗保健提供者可以利用这些研究结果，通过减少个人失败感的协作对话，帮助个人和夫妇减少不孕不育污名。提供者还可以帮助那些面临不孕不育挑战的人，通过利用现有的社交网络并以促进支持的方式扩大与他人的社会联系，来减少心理困扰并增加生活意义。
