Prevalence of depression among infertile couples in Iran: A meta-analysis study

Background: Several studies have been conducted in Iran in order to investigate the prevalence of depression among infertile couples. However, there is a remarkable diversity among the results. This meta-analysis was conducted to estimate an overall prevalence rate of depression among infertile couples in Iran. Methods: International and national electronic databases were searched up to June 2011 including MEDLINE, Science Citation Index Expanded, Scopus, SID, MagIran, and IranMedex as well as conference databases. Furthermore, reference lists of articles were screened and the studies' authors were contacted for additional references. Cross-sectional studies addressing the prevalence of depression among infertile couples were included in this meta-analysis. We assessed 12 separate studies involving overall 2818 participants of which 1251 had depression. Results: Overall prevalence rate of depression among infertile couples was 0.47 (95% CI: 0.40, 0.55). The prevalence rate of depression was 0.44 (95% CI: 0.32, 0.56) during 2000 to 2005 and 0.50 (95% CI: 0.43, 0.57 during 2006 to 2011. The prevalence rate of depression was 0.46 (95% CI: 0.39, 0.53) among women and 0.47 (95% CI: 0.40, 0.54) among men. Conclusion: Not only the prevalence of depression in infertile couples was high but also had increasing growth in recent years. Furthermore, despite many studies conducted addressing the prevalence of depression in infertile couples, there is however a remarkable diversity between the results. Thus, one can hardly give a precise estimation of the prevalence rate of depression among infertile couples in Iran now

Assessment of questionnaires measuring quality of life in infertile couples: A systematic review

Background: Infertility has potentially inappropriate effects on quality of life in infertile couples. Various general and specific questionnaires have been structured for assessing different aspects of quality of life in infertile men, women, or couples. The present systematic review was designed to assess these questionnaires and also identify different factors affecting infertile couples based on the aforesaid questionnaires. Methods: The research strategy involved general and specific terms in relation to couples's infertility and their quality of life. A review was done for studies published from 1982 to 2012 that were indexed in Medline, ISI Web of Science and Scopus as well as abstract books on this subject. We also corresponded with the authors of the references in related studies for introducing more resources and references. Results: In all reviewed studies, different aspects of the quality of life in couples were evaluated including sexual, psychological, social, communicational, environmental, occupational, medical, as well as economical ones. In total, after initial screening of all studies, 10 general and 2 specific questionnaires were retrieved. Although no meta-analysis was found in the review, infertility had a negative effect on quality of life in couples. Conclusion: This study revealed that some general questionnaires such as SF-36 and WHO-QOL were mostly used for assessing quality of life in infertile couples and some specific questionnaires such as FERTI-QoL and Fertility Problem Inventory were rarely used. Thus, it seems that the evaluation of quality of life in infertile couples needs valid instruments for measurement

The rate of the depression prevalence in infertile couples who were refereeing to Gynecologist and psychiatrist specialty clinics in Ardabil city between Aug’2005 to Mar’2007

Introduction: Infertility and depression are main problems of human societies. Infertility is known as a tension occurrence for couples and causes depression and makes crisis in life. This study has been done for determination of depression in infertile couples who were referring to specialty center of cure. Materials & Methods: This study was a descriptive study and has been done since Aug’2005 to Mar’2007. In this study 76 couples were studied with primary infertility. Measurement tool, was questionnaire, which had two section including demography (age, duration of marriage, awareness of infertility and etc) and depression test (Beck depression Inventory). The score of 11 or more was considered in this test. The data were entered into SPSS and analyzed with descriptive statistics (average and standard deviation). Results: The rate of depression in infertile women was more than men and the rate of depression in women with infertile husbands was more than men with infertile wife. The prevalence of mild depression was more than other depression in each sex. The positive prevalence according with lesser educational level and by increasing age in men was significantly more. Conclusion: Infertile people are generally exposing to depression. Since the willing to refer to psychiatrist and receive related services is low, identifying the people who are exposed to be in infertile group and refer them to receive support cure psychiatric consult about psychiatric problems help these people very muc

Can Greater Flamingo Recognize Fertile <i>vs.</i> Infertile Egg? A Single Case Study

Fertility of captive flamingos varies between flocks, species and seasons. Individuating infertile eggs could be helpful to facilitate important decisions. Wild animals could be encouraged to abandon the nest or not, whereas in captivity removing non-viable egg would lead birds to lay a new one. The aim of this study was to investigate the parental behaviour of a pair of greater flamingos (Phoenicopterus roseus ) in the presence of a fertile and an infertile egg. Data on the posture and behaviours of the pair on the nest were collected over two different periods: first period\u2014an infertile egg was laid; second period\u2014a fertile egg was laid. For each period, 28 ten-minute sessions per flamingo partner were run. Results revealed that female flamingo spent significantly more time standing on the nest in the first than in the second period (P = 0.010). Moreover, when standing on the nest, the female performed significantly more egg-care behaviour (attention to the egg, egg rotation/moving) in the first than in the second period (P = 0.010). No significant differences between periods emerged in the male flamingo posture on the nest and behaviours. Findings from this study suggest that female flamingos stand on the nest longer if the egg is infertile, paying more attention and examining it deeply. This study provides new insights into greater flamingo parent-embryo communication. Future research is needed to improve our knowledge on this topic, as well as on the husbandry of this species in the controlled environment

Exposure to Endocrine Disruptors and Nuclear Receptors Gene Expression in Infertile and Fertile Men from Italian Areas with Different Environmental Features

Internal levels of selected endocrine disruptors (EDs) (i.e., perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), di-2-ethylhexyl-phthalate (DEHP), mono-(2-ethylhexyl)-phthalate (MEHP), and bisphenol A (BPA)) were analyzed in blood/serum of infertile and fertile men from metropolitan, urban and rural Italian areas. PFOS and PFOA levels were also evaluated in seminal plasma. In peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of same subjects, gene expression levels of a panel of nuclear receptors (NRs), namely estrogen receptor α (ERα) estrogen receptor β (ERβ), androgen receptor (AR), aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR), peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) and pregnane X receptor (PXR) were also assessed. Infertile men from the metropolitan area had significantly higher levels of BPA and gene expression of all NRs, except PPARγ, compared to subjects from other areas. Subjects from urban areas had significantly higher levels of MEHP, whereas subjects from rural area had higher levels of PFOA in both blood and seminal plasma. Interestingly, ERα, ERβ, AR, PXR and AhR expression is directly correlated with BPA and inversely correlated with PFOA serum levels. Our study indicates the relevance of the living environment when investigating the exposure to specific EDs. Moreover, the NRs panel in PBMCs demonstrated to be a potential biomarker of effect to assess the EDs impact on reproductive health

A comparison of popular fertility awareness methods to a DBN model of the woman's monthly cycle

Fertility Awareness Methods are effective, safe, and low-cost techniques for identifying the fertile days of a menstrual cycle. In this paper, we compare the effectiveness of predicting the fertile days by a Dynamic Bayesian Network model of the monthly cycle to 11 existing Fertility Awareness Methods. We base our comparison on a real data set of 7,017 cycles collected by 881 women. We demonstrate that the DBN model is more accurate than the best modern Fertility Awareness Methods, based on the observation of mucus, marking reasonably high percentage of days of the cycle as infertile. We argue that the DBN approach offers other advantages, such as predicting the ovulation day and being able to adjust its predictions to each woman's individual cycle

HIV Infection and Sexual Behaviour Among Women With Infertility in Tanzania: A Hospital-Based Study.

Infertility is common in Africa, but virtually no data exist on HIV prevalence among infertile women. Mainly anthropological studies in Africa have shown that infertile women have higher risks of marital instability and possibly also have more sexual partners than fertile women. This study was conducted in a hospital in northwest Tanzania during 1994 and 1995. Women presenting themselves with infertility problems to the outpatient clinic were interviewed, examined and blood was drawn. Women who came to deliver in the hospital, excluding primiparae, were taken as a control group. The analysis was limited to women > or = 24 years. In total 154 infertile and 259 fertile women were included in the study. HIV prevalence was markedly higher among infertile women than among fertile women: 18.2% and 6.6% respectively (adjusted odds ratio [OR] for age, residence and occupation 2.7; 95%-confidence interval [CI]: 1.4-5.3). Data on past sexual behaviour showed that infertile women had more marital breakdowns, more lifetime sexual partners and a higher level of exposure to sexually transmitted diseases (STD). Women with fertility problems appear to have higher HIV prevalence, which justifies more attention for such women in the context of AIDS programmes. In addition, caution is needed when using sentinel surveillance data from antenatal clinics to monitor HIV prevalence

Methylation Status of Imprinted Genes and Repetitive Elements in Sperm DNA from Infertile Males

Stochastic, environmentally and/or genetically induced disturbances in the genome-wide epigenetic reprogramming processes during male germ-cell development may contribute to male infertility. To test this hypothesis, we have studied the methylation levels of 2 paternally (H19 and GTL2) and 5 maternally methylated (LIT1, MEST, NESPAS, PEG3, and SNRPN) imprinted genes, as well as of ALU and LINE1 repetitive elements in 141 sperm samples, which were used for assisted reproductive technologies (ART), including 106 couples with strictly male-factor or combined male and female infertility and 28 couples with strictly female-factor infertility. Aberrant methylation imprints showed a significant association with abnormal semen parameters, but did not seem to influence ART outcome. Repeat methylation also differed significantly between sperm samples from infertile and presumably fertile males. However, in contrast to imprinted genes, ALU methylation had a significant impact on pregnancy and live-birth rate in couples with male-factor or combined infertility. ALU methylation was significantly high-er in sperm samples leading to pregnancy and live-birth than in those that did not. Sperm samples leading to abortions showed significantly lower ALU methylation levels than those leading to the birth of a baby. Copyright (C) 2011 S. Karger AG, Base