Impact of COVID‑19 on mental health of infertile couple: A rapid systematic review
نویسندگان
1 Department of Midwifery, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Torbat Heydariyeh University of Medical Sciences, Torbat Heydariyeh, Iran, Health Sciences Research Center, Torbat Heydariyeh University of Medical Sciences, Torbat Heydariyeh, Iran,
2 Addiction and Behavioral Sciences Research Center, North Khorasan University of Medical Sciences, Bojnurd, Iran, Department of Midwifery, School of Medicine, North Khorasan University of Medical Sciences, Bojnurd, Iran,
3 Department of Midwifery, School of Medicine, North Khorasan University of Medical Sciences, Bojnurd, Iran
4 Department of Midwifery, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Birjand, Iran
doi
چکیده
Infertile couples experience a lot of psychological stress due to the inability to achieve the desiredsocial role. Couples who decide to continue assisted reproductive therapy (ART) during the epidemicalso experience the psychological impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, which affects their daily livesdue to social isolation, quarantine, travel restrictions, and cancellation of treatment. Therefore, thepurpose of this study was to assess the mental health of infertile couple pausing or delaying theirtreatment due to the COVID-19 pandemic. PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane, Embase, Web of Science,ScienceDirect, Google Scholar, Research Gate, and the World Health Organization databases andwebsites were systematically searched for original studies concerning abortion in the era of COVID-19pandemic published by August 15, 2021. We used the following keywords: “COVID-19 Coronavirus, infertility, reproductive technique, fertilization, assisted reproduction, pregnant termination,psychological, in vitro mental status, depressive symptoms, and anxiety.” In sum, after automaticallyand manually search and excluding duplicates, 269 articles were found. In final, after screening, 18articles were selected. Most patients experienced negative emotions during the COVID-19 epidemic.When reproductive services were re-established, participants showed higher levels of anxiety andlower quality of life than before quarantine. Women who thought pregnancy was more importantthan getting COVID-19 had higher levels of anxiety than women who thought otherwise (P < 0.05).The COVID-19 pandemic has negative impacts on the mental health and quality of life of patientsseeking fertility services and coping with it requires timely and appropriate psychological intervention,accurate information, and social and organizational support.
