Objective: Infertility counseling is a common method to manage the stress of couples during the infertility treatment process. The most commonly utilized methods in infertility counselling are individual, couple and group counselling. In this study, it was aimed to examine the effects of individual, couple and group attempts on psychosocial status.
Materials and Method: This systematic review was carried out by scanning the CINAHL, PubMed, MEDLINE, ScienceDirect databases up to the date of December 2020 without an earlier date restriction. To access relevant studies, keywords of “infertility, counselling or counseling, couple, individual and group” and their combinations were utilized. A total of 1176 research articles were reached, and 15 research articles that fit the inclusion criteria were reviewed.
Results: Thirteen of the studies were randomized controlled trials, one in experimental design and one prospective pilot study. Four of the studies were individual counseling, four were couple counseling, four were group counseling, and three were conducted using a mixed method. Of the fifteen studies examined, seven had depression and two evaluated depressive symptoms, four of which found that counseling had a positive effect on depression and two on depressive symptoms. Infertility counseling has been found to have generally positive effects on psychosocial status.
Conclusion: Although the effectiveness of psychological counseling is controversial, studies in the literature agree on the necessity of taking part in infertility services. There is a need for randomized controlled studies that reveal the effects of individual, couple and group counselling in terms of psychosocial care.
Cite this article as: Kanığ M, Satılmış İG. Investigating of psychosocial effects individual, couple and group interventions in infertility counselling. Arch Health Sci Res. 8(3):223-233.