Infertility and Treatment Exploring the Effects of the Treatment Process on the Life Cycle

Backgrounds: The treatment process has a great contribution to the life cycle of the infertile women and couples, and involves various aspects of their lives. The treatment process causes disorders of the infertile couples' decision makers to plans in life. This study aimed to exploring the effects of the treatment process on the life cycle.Material and Method : A qualitative content analysis was conducted based on 32 semi-structured interviews with 25 women affected by primary and secondary infertility with no surviving children. The participants were purposefully selected with maximum variability from a fertility health research center in Tehran, Iran. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and analyzed using the conventional content analysis method.Result: Our findings indicate that the effects of the treatment process over the life cycle are divided into three main categories: 1. Reduce Couple’s interactions with subcategories including: (reduce verbal and emotional relationships of couples when treatment failure, Sexual dissatisfaction due to the treatment process , hiding some of the treatment information from one’s husband) 2. The tensions and stresses of continuing the treatment process with subcategories including: (tensions entered from the treatment team, tensions entered from the arrival of fertile women to help treatment, tensions due to therapeutic interventions), 3. The economic tensions of treatment with subcategories including: (undesirable effects of high cost of treatment on other basic needs of life, the treatment of the factor of the social functional disorder) .Conclusion:This study reveals that Iranian women with fertility issues seeking treatment face with many problems that could have devastating effects on the quality of their lives. Therefore, there is a need for informational, emotional and financial support groups that policy makers in the health field should provide for infertile people.