ABSTRACT
Objective: In this study, it was aimed to focus on the
psychological aspect of unexplained infertility by comparing the mental
symptoms of infertility due to known causes and fertile patients.
Patients and Methods: 60 unexplained infertility patiens, 50
infertile patients with a known cause and 56 fertile patients were
included in the study. Socio-demographic data form, Toronto Alexithymia
Scale (TAS-20), Somatosensory Amplification Scale (SAS) and Anxiety
Sensitivity Index (ASI-3) were applied to the patients.
Results: No significant differences in the levels of
alexithymia, somatosensory amplification, and anxiety sensitivity were
detected across the groups (p>0.05). When the correlation
of clinical scale scores with each other was analyzed in the whole group
of infertile patients regardless of the cause, anxiety sensitivity was
found increased as difficulty identifying feelings increased.
Conclusion: In our study, it has been found out that;
regardless of the knowledge of the etiology of infertility, the levels
of alexithymia, somatosensory amplification, and anxiety sensitivity of
infertile cases did not differ from those of fertile women. However, it
has been shown that as the difficulty in identifying emotions increases
in infertile cases, anxiety sensitivity, which may cause psychological
infertility, also increases.
Keywords: Alexithymia, anxiety sensitivity, infertility, mental
illness, psychiatric disorder