According to current medical statistics, infertility accounts for 10% of couples of childbearing age, and is particularly common in China, where the population is large. Experts estimate that one out of every six couples who want to have a child are still childless. Although infertility is not life-threatening, it seriously affects the peace of families and the stability of society. The treatment of infertility has become increasingly important.
With the continuous development of assisted reproduction technology, there are various methods for clinical treatment of infertility: artificial insemination technique; in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer technique; intracytoplasmic single sperm microscopic operation technique; frozen-thawed embryo transfer technique; egg donation technique. More and more patients are getting good treatment, but the psychological aspects of patients are often neglected.
I. Mental health problems of infertility patients.
I remember when I first arrived at the infertility treatment center, my supervisor asked me to lead a patient to another department for examination. The patient told the doctor that she was afraid of this kind of examination, and the doctor replied, “What is there to be afraid of? ” Perhaps these words are not much for ordinary patients, but at that time the patient was crying.
The doctor wondered what was wrong, what was there to cry about. Afterwards, my mentor told me that the psychology of infertile couples is complex and fragile, and that others can never understand their feelings as they do, and that we professionals who want to help infertile couples need to learn to understand their feelings and convince them to become normal people again.
After working for a period of time, I came to understand their complex psychology, which includes feelings of anxiety, pain, guilt, isolation, depression, shame, loss and other feelings.
(a) Anxiety of infertility patients.
Infertility is catastrophic for every family. A couple who are originally happy beyond measure with infinite eagerness looking forward to the arrival of a child, and whose happiness of life is diluted by repeated failures, will be under immense psychological pressure when they are proven to be unable to conceive normally after going to the hospital for examination, and people’s first reaction is instinctive denial, which enables them to deal with unpredictable misfortune and is a self-defense The first reaction is an instinctive denial, which enables the person to cope with unpredictable misfortunes and is a self-defense mechanism, but this denial does not last long and it quickly breaks down in the face of reality, realizing that he or she cannot carry on the family line.
In place of anxiety, they start to constantly seek medical advice, watching all the advertisements on radio and television, browsing all the information on the Internet, and even the little prescriptions on the telephone poles, and shifting all the focus of their lives to medical treatment, putting their work and studies on hold. At this time, they are most likely to trust others, and they will not hesitate to try any method that tells them that it can cure infertility. I once met a patient with bilateral tubal blockage who had more than one hundred tubal lavage treatments in a hospital.
(b) Sense of distress of infertility patients.
For infertile couples suffering more physical pain is bearable, it is the various torments that exist psychologically that are really unbearable. After the final diagnosis of inability to have children or after the couple has failed in their efforts, it is inevitable to feel the pain for the loss of fertility and the loss of life goals. Especially for the partner with the problem, all the pressure falls on him or her.
A patient once came to us crying: we have been seeing them for ten years to have a child, and now my in-laws are in their eighties, bedridden and dying, and the only thing that keeps them from closing their eyes is that their youngest son, who has been single for three generations, has no children. Every time I saw the expectation in their cloudy eyes, I was about to collapse, and my husband refused to divorce me many times, and now it is worse than death.
(iii) Isolation of infertility patients.
What infertility patients fear most is the concerned inquiries from friends and relatives, whenever they are asked about not having children yet, or even when sensitive topics like other women’s pregnancy or the birth of a child are mentioned. Every time they are asked about not having a child, or even about sensitive topics such as another woman’s pregnancy or the birth of a child, the guilt, low self-esteem, and loss are all present.
In today’s open era, infertility is still a topic of conversation, so although the patient is suffering immense pain in her heart, there is no way to talk about what is in her heart, and the couple cannot really talk about it openly and honestly.
They are afraid that their lover will say “I don’t want any more children” for the sake of their undying love, but every time they see someone else’s child, they will see the longing in their eyes. So the infertile couple tries to get away from social activities and anything that causes them pain, becoming more and more isolated. Infertility also becomes a scar in their lives that they cannot touch, and they start to disguise themselves layer by layer in order to hide it, making it impossible for people to approach them.
II. Psychological care of infertility patients.
It is a natural thing to reproduce, but infertility patients are worried about this. They are mostly fragile and sensitive when they come to the clinic, and we need to treat them with more care and greater enthusiasm when treating infertility patients. We need to treat infertility patients with more care and enthusiasm. We need to treat their physical diseases while paying attention to their psychological care. The psychological care for infertility patients is mainly to free them from all kinds of complicated psychological burdens and to treat the infertility problem with ease so that they can better cooperate with clinical treatment. There are three steps to get rid of all the complicated psychological burdens.
(a) Be able to find out and say what kind of complex psychology is involved.
Have a frank communication with the patient and establish a certain friendship. Let them treat themselves as a friend who knows their heart, so that they can shed their pretense in front of themselves, can say all the things they are holding in their heart, and can release all their unhappiness. If they can really let out all the feelings in their hearts, they can treat infertility with a relaxed mind.
(ii) Discuss this complex feeling.
As soon as the patient finds and speaks out all the feelings in their heart, it is important to have a real discussion with the patient about this complicated feeling as much as possible and gradually discover the source of this feeling and the way to cope with it. The first step is to make the patient aware of the fact that she is suffering from infertility as early as possible so that she can undergo further tests and treatment. Then help them to get rid of their low self-esteem and pain and to recover their lost confidence and happiness while undergoing examination and treatment. To be able to take the infertility problem in stride. Let them realize that there are many options available to them, such as through assisted reproduction, or adoption, or a childless life. Either way, they can live happily ever after.
(iii) Encourage them to start a new life.
After one communication, the patients’ all kinds of painful feelings will ease or disappear, and their mood will become calmer day by day. At this time, we should start to encourage them to go back to the society, re-establish their life goals, turn their energy from infertility problems back to work and study, participate in more social activities, and really get rid of the gloom of infertility.
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