Analysis of social, demographic and mental factorsin case of women treated for infertility

Introduction. Infertility is the lack of possibility of producing offspring, although regular sexualintercourse without use of contraceptives are present for over a year. It is a disease affectingaround a million of couples in Poland.Aim of the work. The analysis of social, demographic and mental factors and the presentationof causes of infertility in Poland.Material and methods. 250 infertile women were questioned through one of the subject-re-lated web portals.Results. The married women constituted the vast majority of the group (94.9%), so did thewomen currently working (86.5%). Approximately 1/3 of the respondents were overweight. Almost 80% attempted to get pregnant for a period from a year to 5 years. Half of the re-spondents has started their attempts at getting pregnant when they were aged 25 to 30. Over90% of the respondents declare the will to use the in vitro procedure. Among the causes themost frequent ones are hormonal disorders, ovulation disorders and PCOS. Patients withinfertility problems were anxious, feared and depressed, those feelings worsened with theprolonging time of their attempts to get pregnant.Conclusions. The problem of infertility affects mostly the women with stabilized material andprofessional situation and higher education. With the prolonging infertility negative feelingsand emotions appear, such as: anxiety, despondence, frustration, fear, stress that lead to theever worsening family situation and disturb the social functioning. In the opinion of therespondents the in vitro procedure is an effective way for fighting infertility and a chance tohave offspring. Hormonal disturbances, disturbances of ovulation, endometriosis, the obstructedoviducts and anatomical malformations of uterus were the most common causes of infertilityin case of the researched group of women.