Investigation of the Exposure to Violence and Depression of Infertile Women

Aim: This study was conducted for the purpose of determining and comparing the exposed to violence and depression situations of infertile women and relation between the two scores. Materials and Methods: This Descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted with 306 infertile women who applied to the Deparment of Obstetrics and Gynecology in a university hospital. Sociodemographic information was collected by the questionnaire and the Infertile Women Exposure Assessment Questionnaire (IWEAQ) was collected using the Beck Depression Scale (BDS). Data, mean ± standard deviation (mean ± SS) percentage distributions and Kruskal Wallis, Mann Whitney U tests were used in evaluation of the study. Results: The average age of the women participating in the survey was 30,886,51 years.Mean age of marriage was 5,9164,804 years, mean age of first marriage was 24,7975,407 years, mean duration of infertilite diagnosis was 1,44 0,736 years, mean duration of treatment was 3,4803.41 years . The average results of the women who has been applied Beck Depression Scale was 29,67 13,88 and %66,3 those who participated had severe depressive symptoms;the mean score of the Violence Identification Scale on Infertil Women was 69,89±28,59 ; There was a statistically significant difference between the depression levels of women and the IWEAQ point averages;there was a strong and meaningful relationship between the depression levels and the IWEAQ point averages in a positive direction. Conclusion: The majority of infertile women have moderate and severe depressive symptoms and more than half of them is exposed violance in the family or scoiety by the means of "domestic violence" ,"social pressure " , "punishment", "exposure of traditional practice " , "exclusion " ,It is concluded that those women is more vulnerable in the society,there is a strong relationship between the level of exposure due to infertility and freguency of depresion.