Abstract

Objectives: The present study, an ex post facto design was carried out to compare the degree of stress, coping strategies, and the state of  mental health in fertile individuals with those in infertile individuals.

Method: Two groups of subjects were compared with one another, each consisted of 20 males and 20 females the first group was consisted of infertile and the other one of fertile individuals. The infertile subjects were randomly selected from the cases admitted to Rooyan Infertility Clinic. Both groups were matched in terms of variables such as sex, age, education, and length of marriage.

Findings: the study demonstrated that the infertile group experienced greater stress and lower mental health. Moreover infertile males experienced less stress and better mental health as compared to infertile females. The infertile subjects who tended to adopt less useful coping strategies, possessed lower mental health, but showed no significant difference in adopting problem-centred and emotion-centred coping strategies. Moreover, the adoption of less useful coping strategies was significantly greater among infertile females than infertile males.