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Publication #FAR3039

 

How Couples Cope with Infertility1

Donna Davis2

Figure 1. 
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I've had many friends who, soon after they were married, were constantly facing questions from friends and relatives about when they were going to start having children. Many people assume this would be the next logical step. However, many couples choose not to have children, and more than four million married men and women in the U.S. have difficulty conceiving or carrying a child to birth.

While researchers have long studied infertility and its causes, not as much attention has been given to how it impacts couples. However, in a recent study published in Family Relations, researchers explored the different ways couples cope with infertility and the impact those coping processes have on their relationships.

The researchers identified three key coping strategies, including "distancing, self-controlling, and accepting responsibility. These were significantly related to couples' reports of infertility stress, marital adjustment, and depression" (Peterson, Newton, Rosen, and Schulman, 2006, p. 234). For example, couples had higher levels of stress and lower levels of marital adjustment when both the husband and wife blamed themselves for the infertility. Likewise, spouses engaging in a high level of self-control, such as keeping their feelings to themselves, could experience negative reactions from their partner with a low degree of self-control. These couples also had a more difficult time adjusting to their infertility (Peterson et al., 2006).

The researchers concluded that during this stressful time spouses are urged to find ways to help one another cope with the unexpected pressures of infertility (Peterson at al., 2006).

Listening, learning, and living together: it's the science of life. "Family Album" is a co-production of University of Florida IFAS Extension, the Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences, and of WUFT-FM. If you'd like to learn more, please visit our website at http://www.familyalbumradio.org.

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Reference

Peterson, B., Newton, C., Rosen, K., and Schulman, R. (2006). Coping processes of couples experiencing infertility. Family Relations, 55, 227-239.

Footnotes

1.

This document is FAR3039, one of a series of the Family Youth and Community Sciences Department, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. Broadcast as program 487 in January 2007. Published on EDIS July 2012. In the interest of time and/or clarity, the broadcast version of this script may have been modified. Visit the EDIS website at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu.

2.

Donna Davis, senior producer, Family Album Radio, Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences, Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611.

The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) is an Equal Opportunity Institution authorized to provide research, educational information and other services only to individuals and institutions that function with non-discrimination with respect to race, creed, color, religion, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, political opinions or affiliations. For more information on obtaining other extension publications, contact your county Cooperative Extension service.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Florida, IFAS, Florida A. & M. University Cooperative Extension Program, and Boards of County Commissioners Cooperating. Nick T. Place, Dean.