Intrusive and avoidant ideation among females pursuing infertility treatment

Suzanne M. Miller, Walter Mischel, Christine M. Schroeder, Joanne S. Buzaglo, Karen Hurley, Pamela Schreiber, Charles E. Mangan

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

It was shown that infertility and its treatment constitute a stressful experience for women, reflected particularly in disturbing intrusive ideation about the stress source. Infertility patients reported levels of intrusive ideation significantly higher than routine gynecologic patients and not significantly different from levels of psychiatric outpatients being treated for stress reactions to traumatic events. Intrusive ideation also predicted the degree of self-reported infertility-specific distress and dysfunction, further clarifying the key role of such ideation in the experience. Finally, as hypothesized, the frustration level of the treatment experience (as indexed by the number of infertility treatment methods attempted) predicted avoidant ideation. Implications for managing the psychological distress and disruption associated with the infertility treatment experience were discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)847-858
Number of pages12
JournalPsychology and Health
Volume13
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - 1998

Keywords

  • Avoidant ideation
  • Chronic stress
  • Infertility
  • Infertility-specific distress and dysfunction
  • Intrusive ideation
  • Treatment-failure frustration index

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